different between deceptive vs sneaky

English

Etymology

From Middle French déceptif, from Latin d?cept?vus, from d?cipi? (“I deceive”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?.?s?p.t?v/

Adjective

deceptive (comparative more deceptive, superlative most deceptive)

1. Likely or attempting to deceive.

   Synonym: misleading

   • 1653, John Bulwer, Anthropometamorphosis, London: William Hunt, Scene 24, p. 521,^[1]

     […] others declare that no Creature can be made or transmuted into a better or worse, or transformed into another species […] and Martinus Delrio the Jesuit accounts this degeneration of Man into a Beast to be an illusion, deceptive and repugnant to Nature;

   • 1789, Thomas Holcroft (translator), The History of My Own Times by Frederick the Great, London: G.G.J. and J. Robinson, Part 1, Chapter 12, p. 163,^[2]

     […] at the opening of the campaign, the French, after various deceptive attempts on different places, suddenly invested Tournay.

   • 1846, Richard Chenevix Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord, London: John W. Parker, 2nd ed., 1847, Preliminary Essay, Chapter 2, p. 10,^[3]

     language altogether deceptive, and hiding the deeper reality from our eyes

   • 1978, Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Chapter 2, p. 13,^[4]

     […] it is characteristic of TB that many of its symptoms are deceptive—liveliness that comes from enervation, rosy cheeks that look like a sign of health but come from fever—and an upsurge of vitality may be a sign of approaching death.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:deceptive

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

English

Etymology

From sneak +? -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sni?ki/
• Rhymes: -i?ki

Adjective

sneaky (comparative sneakier, superlative sneakiest)

1. Difficult to catch due to constantly outwitting the adversaries

   Catching those thieves will be hard: they're so sneaky!

2. Dishonest; deceitful.

   They played a sneaky trick on us.

Synonyms

• slippery
• evasive, dodgy

Derived terms

• sneaky suspicion

Related terms

• sneak

Translations

Further reading

• sneaky in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• sneaky in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Noun

sneaky (plural sneakies)

1. (espionage, slang) Any device used for covert surveillance.
   • 1974, Miles Copeland, Without cloak or dagger: the truth about the new espionage (page 244)

     […] 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.

   • 1991, Chapman Pincher, The Truth about Dirty Tricks

     […] has used travellers to plant 'sneakies' - small electronic transmitting devices which form part of a surveillance network.

Anagrams

• Kaysen, Sankey, Yankes, snakey