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Definition
clever and good at tricking others to achieve a goal- Don't underestimate her. She is a wily campaigner.
wily = clever and good at tricking others
- The wily fox avoided the trap and managed to get into the chicken coop.
- Don't underestimate that wily old attorney.
- She is known for her wily ways.
- The Devil, as Reverend Hale said, is a wily one, and, until an hour before he fell, even God thought him beautiful in Heaven.Arthur Miller -- The Crucible
- But the Devil is a wily one, you cannot deny it.Arthur Miller -- The Crucible
- He was more interested in Michael's capacity to serve as an entertaining big brother and wily co-conspirator.Michael Lewis -- The Blind Side
- The man spoke truly; he might unwittingly, in sheer terror, utter the shriek that might prove a warning to the wily Scarlet Pimpernel.Baroness Orczy -- The Scarlet Pimpernel
- The prattle of the little ones and their pleasure in the stories I told them of elf and gnome, of hero and wily bear, are pleasant things to remember.Helen Keller -- Story of My Life
- "Because we're wily," said Hugh.Ransom Riggs -- Hollow City
- So wily, and we must follow with wile.Bram Stoker -- Dracula
- No wily hates sought I; for myself swore not many Of oaths in unright.Unknown -- Beowulf
- The wily practices, and the covert ways, I knew them all, and I so plied their art that to the earth's end the sound went forth.Dante Alighieri -- Dante's Inferno
- There was silence for as long as two seconds and then the wily village voice began to answer him, 'We are poor, father.Graham Greene -- The Power and the Glory
- 'What is it now, I say,' pursued the wily usurer, 'or what has it a chance of being?Charles Dickens -- Nicholas Nickleby
- I could never abide the weeping of women, Joff once said, but his mother was the wily woman weeping now.George R.R. Martin -- A Storm of Swords
- I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom.Mary Shelley -- Frankenstein
- Had he known more about dragons and their wily ways, he might have teen more frightened and less hopeful of catching this one napping.J.R.R. Tolkien -- The Hobbit
- A few minutes after that score, the same wily forward for Roswell snuck behind the Fugees defense and blasted another shot past Ervin.Warren St. John -- Outcasts United
- To whom the wily Adder, blithe and glad.John Milton -- Paradise Lost
wily = clever
wily = clever and good at tricking others
wily = clever and good at tricking others
wily = tricky
wily = tricky
(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means state or degree of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)