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guile

noun
/ɡaɪl/

Etymology

From Middle English gile, from Anglo-Norman gile, from Old French guile (“deception”), from Frankish *wīl (“ruse”), from Proto-Germanic *wīlą, from Proto-Indo-European *wey- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate via Proto-Germanic with wile.

  1. derived from *wey-✻
  2. derived from *wīlą✻
  3. derived from *wīl✻ — “ruse”
  4. derived from guile
  5. derived from gile
  6. inherited from gile

Definitions

  1. Astuteness often marked by a certain sense of cunning or artful deception.

    • Estonia were struggling to get to grips with the game while Ireland were showing a composure and guile that demonstrated their experience in play-off ties.

  2. Deceptiveness, deceit, fraud, duplicity, dishonesty.

    • Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!

  3. To deceive, beguile, bewile.

    • Who means no guile, be guiled soonest shall
  4. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. Obsolete form of gold.

    2. Alternative form of gyle.

    3. A surname from French.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at guile. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01guile02bewile03deceive04trick05entertaining06amusing07amuse08beguile

A definitional loop anchored at guile. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at guile

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA