sly

«sly» in Mova's school dictionary: clever in a sneaky way, good at tricking people and… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (sly, slyer, slyest — also slier, sliest); adverb slyly; noun slyness; phrase «on the sly»

meaning for a pupil

1) Sly means clever in a sneaky way, good at tricking people and hiding what you really plan. tree →

2) A sly smile, look or wink shows that someone knows a secret or a joke that others do not. tree →

3) «On the sly» means secretly, so that others do not notice. tree →

sense in the lessons

Common in fables and fairy tales: the sly fox, the sly wolf; it warns the reader that a character is planning a trick. In everyday life and safety lessons it helps children spot people who try to trick them. Phrases: a sly fox, a sly grin, a sly look, on the sly.

examples

• The sly fox tricked the crow into dropping its cheese. tree →
• Be careful: a sly person may pretend to be your friend to get something. tree →
• Tom gave me a sly wink when the teacher wasn't looking. tree →
• She had a sly smile, so I knew she had hidden my shoes. tree →
• He was eating sweets on the sly during the film. tree →
• The sly cat waited quietly until the bird came close. tree →
• "No need to search any farther," thought sly Master Fox. tree →

note

Both «slyer/slyest» and «slier/sliest» are correct. «Sly» is usually negative (tricky, not honest), but a «sly smile» can be friendly and playful. Do not mix up with «shy» (nervous with people), which is a different word.

In the corpora

• In many stories foxes are sly tricksters, because real foxes are clever and adaptable, eat almost anything and learn quickly.
• "Has a nice personality" is often a sly way to say someone is not attractive.
• "lysYtsya" means fox; the sly fox "Lys Mykyta" is a famous Ukrainian tale character.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «sly» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.