Wiley

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Skilled at using clever tricks and deception to get what you want ; difficult to catch or pin down because of wiliness and strategic evasiveness
2. Inclined to employ crafty stratagems and dishonest methods to achieve goals ; hard to deal with due to scheming and elusive behavior
3. Prone to deceptive and artful schemes ; slippery and hard to grasp because of calculated shrewdness and misdirection

Etymology: Wiley comes from the Old English "wilig," meaning "full of guile" or "cunning," which is related to "wile," the older noun for a sly trick. The word is an adjective formed by adding the suffix "-y" (meaning "characterised by") to "wile," so it literally means "full of wiles." Its roots run back through Germanic, where the same base gave words for deception and trickery. Wiley has kept its sense of cleverness through the centuries, and it is now used mostly to describe someone who is shrewd in a sly or self-serving way, rather than a dishonest one. The spelling "wily" is a common alternative in modern usage, and both are accepted.

Synonyms: cunning, crafty, sly, shrewd

Antonyms: naive, straightforward, honest