sneaky

adj
/ˈsniːki/

Etymology

From sneak + -y.

  1. inherited from *snīkaną — “to creep, crawl
  2. inherited from *snīkan
  3. inherited from snīcan — “to creep, crawl
  4. inherited from sniken — “to creep, crawl
  5. formed as sneaky — “sneak + -y

Definitions

  1. Elusive

    Elusive; difficult to capture or observe due to constantly outwitting the adversaries.

    • Catching those thieves will be hard: they're so sneaky!
    • Be sneaky. Fish frighten easily.
    • Some fans may have mistaken the album’s floatiness for aimlessness, but Mr. Mercer’s songs have never been sneakier, or prettier.
  2. Dishonest

    Dishonest; deceitful.

    • They played a sneaky trick on us.
    • Irish car bombs were a sneaky drink—they tasted like a chocolate milk shake, and more than once he'd been seduced into drinking several of them. It was only after he stood up that he realized how much of a wallop they packed.
  3. Any device used for covert surveillance.

    • […] in cooperation with the National Security Agency, installs and maintains "sneakies" throughout the U.S.S.R. and Communist China — but increasingly, denied areas are surveyed more simply.
    • […] has used travellers to plant 'sneakies' - small electronic transmitting devices which form part of a surveillance network.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at sneaky. 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.

01sneaky02elusive03evading04evade05artifice06crafty

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

6 hops · closes at sneaky

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