insidiously

comparative more insidiously · superlative most insidiously

1. In an insidious manner.

   These are gothic notions of beauty—the ivy is beautiful, but, when it insidiously destroys the trunk from which it receives support, who would not grub it up?

   1790, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men

   4 more examples

   It was unconsciously, insidiously, that her ten years of happiness with Westall had developed another conception of the tie; a reversion, rather, to the old instinct of passionate dependency and possessorship that now made her blood revolt at the mere hint of change.

   1910, Edith Wharton, The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton, Part 2 (of 10)

   Later, Lynch thought up a number of other successful offerings for ‘tweenagers, the age group from 9 to 14 that advertisers, perhaps insidiously, love. Nickelodeon’s “The Secret World of Alex Mack” is another of his much-copied shows.

   2006 December 24, Kate Aurthur, “Enthusiasm that is almost like a kid’s”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 Jan 2021

   […] use of homophobic pejoratives will most certainly continue to compromise the psychological health of young homosexual and bisexual people by insidiously constructing their sexuality as something wrong, dangerous or shameworthy.

   2009, Barbara Perry, Hate Crimes

   Part of his appeal - apart from those insidiously catchy songs - is his everyman persona. He looks and dresses like a fan on the train home from Glastonbury, rather than one of the festival's headliners.

   2026 September 16, Mark Savage, BBC