tricksy

comparative tricksier · superlative tricksiest

1. Inclined to trickery; sneaky, devious.

   My trickſey Spirit.

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 18

   5 more examples

   There will succeed, therefore, in my opinion, and that too within no long time, to the rudeness and rusticity of our age, that ensnaring meretricious popularness in literature, with all the tricksy humilities of the ambitious candidates for the favourable suffrages of the judicious public, which if we do not take good care will break up and scatter before it all robustness and manly vigour of intellect, all masculine fortitude of virtue.

   1809, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Friend

   A green light was flickering in his bulging eyes. ‘Masster, masster!’ he hissed. ‘Wicked! Tricksy! False!’ He spat and stretched out his long arms with white snapping fingers.

   1954 November 11, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “The Forbidden Pool”, in The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings, 2nd edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, published 1965, →ISBN, book IV, page 297

   As an experienced editor I disapprove of backflashes, foreshadowings and tricksy devices […]

   2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Sceptre (Hodder and Stoughton), →ISBN

   The second section of the novel consists of “The Golden Vanity”, the New Yorker short story that prompted the narrator’s substantial advance, and which transposes names and details of the story and characters introduced in part one. This may seem tricksy in a way we’ve seen many times before.

   2015 January 14, Catherine O'Flynn, “10:04 by Ben Lerner review”, in The Guardian

   “I know what you're trying to do. You're trying to smoke me out, you tricksy little bitches. Well, eat skata. Because I actually quite like this new company.”

   2023 July 20, Jake Bender & Zach Dunn, “Pride Parade” (19:25 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 5, episode 3, spoken by Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou)

   Synonyms: mischievous