by the sly

adverb

on the sly

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Meanings

adverbby the sly (not comparable)
  1. datednot comparableon the sly

    I read Plutarch, and Shakespeare, and Don Quixote by the sly, and supplied myself in that way with wandering thoughts, while my tutor was assuring me that "an improved man, as distinguished from an ignorant one, was a man who knew the reason why water ran downhill."

    1859, George Eliot, The Lifted Veil
Cite this entry
APA

by the sly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20the%20sly

MLA

“by the sly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20the%20sly. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “by the sly,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20the%20sly.

Source: by the sly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.