ON THE SLY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.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

... have at last settled down to look over those awful papers. It is well I am not with you. I fear we should fight every blessed minute over the destruction of Tom, Dick and Harry's epistles. Unless Mary, on the sly, sticks them in the stove when your back is turned, you will never diminish the pile during your mortal life. (Make the most of my hint, dear Mary.)" It is safe to say it was just as large at the end of the ...

— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 2 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper

... he whispered, as he quietly slipped the paper into Bud's hand. "Read it on the sly; and then give ...

— The Cave of Gold - A Tale of California in '49 • Everett McNeil

... been frolickin' and projectin' round together to keep 'em frum growin' up to do mean things. I use chawin' tobacco myself; but I've told 'em, I don't know how many times, that ef they chaw it'll stunt 'em in their growth. And I've got several of 'em that was smokin' cigarettes on the sly to promise me they'd quit. So I don't figger ez I've done them boys any real harm by goin' round with 'em. And I believe ef you was to ast 'em they'd all ...

— The Best Short Stories of 1917 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various

... other things—doing, in fact, everything but idling. And, mind, no conversation is allowed among the men—not a word more than necessary for the performance of their several duties. If they chat at all when on deck, it is 'on the sly,' and out of sight and hearing of the vigilant officers, who have eyes like the lynx, and ears ...

— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 431 - Volume 17, New Series, April 3, 1852 • Various

... "By Jove, Jim," he said, "that cage story is too thin. It worked all right up to ten o'clock, for Mackay and Fair both came down and spent a good quarter of an hour in the end of the drift and kept tapping around with their hammers. I was mean enough to watch them on the sly and saw them both taking samples. If you keep awake, you will see John Mackay down here again by six o'clock in the morning, and you may make up your mind not to see any more daylight for three days or a week to come; that is, if the drift keeps ...

— The Wedge of Gold • C. C. Goodwin

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