different between foxy vs sly

English

Etymology

From fox +? -y.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?f?ksi/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f?ksi/
• Rhymes: -?ksi
• Hyphenation: fox?y

Adjective

foxy (comparative foxier, superlative foxiest)

1. Having the qualities of a fox.
2. Cunning, sly.
3. Attractive, sexy (of a woman).
4. (of a person, especially a woman) Reddish-brown haired.
5. (art) Using too much of the reddish-brown colours.
   • 1844, Benjamin Robert Haydon, Lectures on Painting and Design:

     His eye for colour was so exquisite that I do not think there is a single instance in all his works of a heated tint which is called foxy. This cannot be said of Rubens or Rembrandt […]

   • 1870, Frederick Peter Seguier, A Critical and Commercial Dictionary of the Works of Painters:

     Although the skies of Brydael's pictures are often broken with rather heavy masses of orange and yellow clouds, yet, taking him altogether, he was not a 'foxy' painter; on the contrary, there is a silvery coolness about some of his pictures which pleases us.

6. (of wine) Having an animal-like odour.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:sexy

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• sligh (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English sly, sley, sleigh, slei?, from Old Norse slægr, slœgr (“sly, cunning”, literally “capable of hitting or striking”), from Proto-Germanic *sl?giz (“lively, agile, cunning, sly, striking”), from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, throw”). Cognate with Icelandic slægur (“crafty, sly”), Norwegian Nynorsk sløg (“sly”), Swedish slug (“sly”). Related to sleight, slay. In all likelihood, however, unrelated with Saterland Frisian slau (“sly, crafty”), Dutch sluw (“sly, cunning”), Low German slu (“sly, cunning”), German schlau (“clever, crafty”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sla?/
• Rhymes: -a?

Adjective

sly (comparative slier or slyer, superlative sliest or slyest)

1. Artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily.
2. (having a positive sense) Dexterous in performing an action, so as to escape notice

   Synonyms: nimble, skillful, cautious, shrewd

3. Done with, and marked by, artful and dexterous secrecy; subtle

4. Light or delicate; slight; thin.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:wily

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

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

Adverb

sly

1. Slyly.

Anagrams

• Lys, YLS, YLs, lys, syl-

Lower Sorbian

Adjective

sly

1. Obsolete spelling of z?y (“bad, evil”)

Middle English

Alternative forms

• scle, slei, sley, scley, slegh, sleigh, sleygh, sligh, slygh, sle?, slei?, slei?h, sli?, sly?, scli?, sly?h, sleyh, slih, slyh

Etymology

From Old Norse slœgr, from Proto-Germanic *sl?giz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sli?/, /sl?i?/, /slix/, /sl?i?x/

Adjective

sly (plural and weak singular slye, comparative slyer, superlative sliest)

1. Judicious, considered, shrewd; having or indicative of great wisdom.
2. Adept, expert, quality; having or indicative of great expertise.
3. Sly, artful, wily; employing or being an example of deception.
4. (rare) Attractive; having good looks.
5. (rare) Unknown or hidden.

Related terms

• sleighly
• sleight
• slynesse

Descendants

• English: sly
• Scots: slee

References

• “sleigh, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-06-05.

Swedish

Noun

sly n

1. very young trees, in particular while growing very densely

Declension

Anagrams

• lys, syl, yls