ON THE SLY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of On the sly

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/ɑn ðə slaɪ/ Listen

adjective

Sly adj. (compar. slyer or slier; superl. slyest or sliest)

Dexterous in performing an action, so as to escape notice; nimble; skillful; cautious; shrewd; knowing; in a good sense. "Be ye sly as serpents, and simple as doves." "Whom graver age And long experience hath made wise and sly."

Artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily. "For my sly wiles and subtle craftiness, The litle of the kingdom I possess."

Done with, and marked by, artful and dexterous secrecy; subtle; as, a sly trick. "Envy works in a sly and imperceptible manner."

Light or delicate; slight; thin. (Obs.)

By the sly, or On the sly, in a sly or secret manner. (Colloq.) "Gazed on Hetty's charms by the sly."

Sly goose (Zool.), the common sheldrake; so named from its craftiness.

Synonyms: Cunning; crafty; subtile; wily. See Cunning.

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Etymology of 'On the sly'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"On the sly" Quotes from Famous Books

... days in the week, but this time I've wrought from breakfast till 5.15 p.m. six days in the week; and once or twice I smouched a Sunday when the boss wasn't looking. Nothing is half so good as literature hooked on Sunday, on the sly. ...

— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... yourself snug," said Mr. Darling. "Watch the tide. Haul in and back off with it; and, whatever you do, lie low and keep quiet. I am going to take a look at Chance Along—on the sly, you understand. You'll know all about it later. Don't worry if I don't get back within the next ...

— The Harbor Master • Theodore Goodridge Roberts

... If he's able We're to have a feast! so nice! One goes to the Abbot's table, All of us get each a slice. How go on your flowers? None double Not one fruit-sort can you spy? Strange!—And I, too, at such trouble, Keep them close-nipped on the sly! ...

— Robert Browning: How To Know Him • William Lyon Phelps

... to think that she'd run away and get married on the sly, at a word from that young man; but he doesn't know what a dear innocent soul she is, and how sorry she'd be to displease any one that's kind to her. I don't know anything about Miss Paget. She's more stand-offish than our ...

— Charlotte's Inheritance • M. E. Braddon

... plied his paddle again. He was not as concerned about the launch as he pretended, of course; at the worst it probably meant that Stinson had been entertaining some of his friends on the sly. He had no intention of handing his mysterious passenger to the police. But was he to let her laugh at him and disappear unchallenged into the fog out of which ...

— Every Man for Himself • Hopkins Moorhouse

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