different between sly vs sley
sly
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)
- Artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily.
- (having a positive sense) Dexterous in performing an action, so as to escape notice
- Synonyms: nimble, skillful, cautious, shrewd
- Done with, and marked by, artful and dexterous secrecy; subtle
- 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
- Slyly.
Anagrams
- Lys, YLS, YLs, lys, syl-
Lower Sorbian
Adjective
sly
- 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)
- Judicious, considered, shrewd; having or indicative of great wisdom.
- Adept, expert, quality; having or indicative of great expertise.
- Sly, artful, wily; employing or being an example of deception.
- (rare) Attractive; having good looks.
- (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
- very young trees, in particular while growing very densely
Declension
Anagrams
- lys, syl, yls
sly From the web:
- what slytherin are you
- what sly mean
- what slytherin means
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- what slytherin are you buzzfeed
- what slytherin are you quizzable
- what slytherin character are you
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sley
English
Etymology
From Middle English slay, from Old English slege.
Noun
sley (plural sleys)
- reed (of a loom)
- A guideway in a knitting machine.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)
- (weaving) The number of ends per inch in the cloth, provided each dent in the reed in which it was made contained an equal number of ends.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of E. Whitworth to this entry?)
Verb
sley (third-person singular simple present sleys, present participle sleying, simple past and past participle sleyed)
- (transitive, weaving) To separate or part the threads of, and arrange them in a reed.
Related terms
- sleave
- sleid
Anagrams
- Slye, leys, lyes, lyse, sely, syle
Middle English
Adjective
sley
- Alternative form of sly
sley From the web:
- slay means
- what does sley mean
- what is sley eccentricity
- slay queen
- what is sley in weaving
- what does sley mean in weaving
- what does sley
- what does slay mean