Shifty

Definition: Shifty

Shifty

Adjective

1. Characterized by insincerity or deceit; evasive; "a devious character"; "shifty eyes".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "shifty" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1808. (references)

Synonym: Shifty

Crosswords: Shifty

On the plus side, you killed the bench which was lookin' shifty. (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer)

The Fable of How Uncle Brewster Was Too Shifty for the Tempter (1914)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• A Fine Italian Hand: A Shifty Lou Anderson Mystery (reference)

• A Slick Italian Hand: A Shifty Lou Anderson Novel (reference)

• Now You See Her, Now You Don't: A Shifty Lou Anderson Novel (reference)

• Sea Life: The Cormorant: The Shifty Shark (Tristars) (reference)

  (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Expression using "shifty": shifty eyes. Additional references.

Beginning with "shifty": shifty-eyed, shifty-eyes, shifty-eyes-with-dandruff, shifty-looking.

Albanian

tinëzar (catlike, crafty, foxy, insidious, sly, sly person, slyboots, sneak, sneaky, stealthy, underground, underhand), i shkathët (adroit, agile, artful, brisk, catlike, clever, cunning, deft, dexterous, dextrous, facile, feat, habile, knacky, light-handed, lightsome, lissom, lissome, lithe, lithesome, loose-limbed, lubricous, natty, neat, neat-handed, nimble, quick-witted, ready, resourceful, skilful, skillful, slick, smart, spry, supple, swift-handed, tactical, vivacious), i pakapshëm (elusive, elusory, impalpable, inaccessible, inappreciable, inapprehensible, incomprehensible, intangible, unreachable), dredharak (cunning, dodger, guileful, slippery, slyboots, tricky). (various references)

Arabic 

‏مراوغ (deceitful, devious, dodgy, elusive, evasive, shifting, wily), ‏واسع الحيلة (resourceful), ‏داهية (adroit, artful, astute, pawky, quizzical, resourceful, shrewd, sly). (various references)

Bulgarian 

хитър (acute, arch, artful, calculating, catty, clever, crafty, cunning, cute, deep, designing, disingenuous, dodgy, foxy, guileful, insidious, knowing, leery, long-headed, parlous, patent, pawky, politic, sharp, shrewd, sleek, slim, sly, smart, supple, wary, wide, wily, wordly-wise), находчив (adroit, clever, ingenious, inventive, mercurial, quick-witted, ready-witted, resourceful, smart), лъжлив (bogus, deceitful, deceptive, delusive, delusory, double, double-tongued, elusory, false, lying, mendacious, misleading, mock, perjurious, phantasmagoric, pretended, quack, spoof, tinsel, truthless, untrue, untruthful, vain). (various references)

Czech

zrádný (deceitful, false, guileful, perfidious, telltale, traitorous, treacherous, treasonable, treasonous), záludný (captious, insidious, sneaky), úskoèný (crafty, deceitful, shuffling, snaky, tricky, underhand, wily). (various references)

Farsi 

فریب امیز (Deceitful, Deceptive), متغیر (Diverse, Indignant, Protean, Transitive, Uncertain, Unsteady, Variable, Variant, Vicissitudinous), حیله گر (Captious, Crafty, Janusfaced, Shrewd, Trepanation), زرنگ (Adroit, Agile, Apt, Bright, Clever, Dapper, Jaunty, Nimble, Pawky, Shrewd, Slicker, Smart, Snide, Spry), دست وپادار, بی ثبات (Impermanent, Slippery, Unstable, Variable), باتدبیر (Circumspect, Tactician), باابتکار. (various references)

French

sournois, louche (shady), fuyant, évasif. (various references)

German

schlau (artful, astute, brightly, canny, clever, cleverly, crafty, cunning, cunningly, cute, foxy, leery, neat, neatly, nifty, sharp, shrewd, shrewdly, slily, sly, slyly, smart, smartly, sneaky, vulpine, vulpinely, wily, wise), gerissen (broken, cagey, crafty, cunning, cunningly, quirkily, sharp, slippery, sly, slyly, torn, wily, wrenched). (various references)

Greek 

ικανόσ (able, able bodied, apt, capable, competent, efficient, fit, potent, skilful, sufficient), εύστροφοσ (agile, nimble, versatile), ανειλικρινήσ (cheap, disingenuous, insincere, lip, mealymouthed). (various references)

Hebrew 

תחבל� י (crafty, inventive, tricky, wily), ערמומי (arch, artful, calculating, canny, catchy, crafty, cunning, devious, foxy, insidious, pawky, slicker, sly, underhand, wily). (various references)

Hungarian

sunyi (hang-dog, hanging, have a hang-dog look, sly, sneaking), ravasz (acute, artful, astute, be cunning, cagey, cagy, calculating, canny, catchy, colubrine, crafted, crafty, cunning, cute, deep, drafty, draughty, elusive, foxy, gimmicky, guileful, insidious, knowing, leery, pawky, shrewd, slick, slim, sly, to know how many beans make five, trappy, tricksy, tricky, trigger, vulpine, wily), ötletes (imaginative, ingenious, nimble, smart). (various references)

Italian

loscouo, equivoco (ambiguity, ambiguous, dubious, equivocal, equivocalness, equivocation, fishy, misapprehension, misunderstanding, shady, underhand). (various references)

Manx

lhoobagh (arching, bending, bowing, coiled, convoluted, crooked, crooked morally, curved, curvilinear, faltering, inflexional, limber, plastic, pliable, serpentine, sinuous, snakiness, supple, terry, tortuous, twisting, vermiculate, willowy, winding). (various references)

Pig Latin

iftyshay.(various references)

Portuguese

matreiro (jesuitic, jesuitical, wily), manhoso (cagey, designing, jesuitic, jesuitical, machiavellian, pawky, sharp, slick, sly, tricksy, tricky, vulpine, wily), falso (apocryphal, artificial, assumed, bastard, bogus, brummagem, buckram, cammed, canting, counterfeit, deceitful, double-dealing, double-faced, double-tongued, dummy, erroneous, faked, false, flash, hollow-hearted, imitation, insincere, lying, mendacious, mock, off-key, ostensible, painted, phoney, phony, pinchbeck, pretended, professed, self-styled, shoddy, simulated, sklent, slippery, slippy, snaky, snide, so-called, spurious, supposititious, traitorous, treacherous, truthless, two-faced, two-tongued, unfair, untrue, untrustworthy, wrong), fértil em expedientes, desonesto (cambered, crooked, devious, dishonest, drossy, false, immodest, impure, knavish, light-fingered, low-down, nasty, shady, sharp, thievish, tortuous, unchaste, unfair, unfaithful, untrustworthy), desleal (cammed, devious, dishonest, disloyal, faithless, false, hollow-hearted, recreant, traitorous, treacherous, treasonable, trustless, truthless, unfair, unfaithful, untrustworthy), astuto (acute, adroit, arch, artful, astucious, astute, canny, clearheaded, clever, crafty, cunning, designing, guileful, jesuitic, jesuitical, leery, longheaded, machiavellian, perspicacious, sharp, shrewd, sly, smart, sophisticated, subtil, subtile, subtle, tricksy, tricky, vulpine, wily). (various references)

Romanian

schimbãtor (capricious, catching, changeable, chequered, choppy, fickle, inconstant, mobile, Moody, moonish, mutable, slippery, switch, unequal, unsettled, unsteady, variable, varied, versatile, volatile), viclean (arch, artful, astute, cagey, catlike, catty, crafty, cunning, cute, deceitful, downy, foxy, guileful, leery, pawky, quick-witted, sly, slyly, subtle, wily), perfid (false, false-hearted, guileful, perfidious, serpentine, snaky, treacherous), descurcãreţ (handy, resourceful, skilful, skillful), şmecher (acute, arch, artful, astute, canny, catchy, clever, crafty, cunning, cute, deep, dodger, downy, leery, sharp, shaver, slick, slippery, sly, slyboots, wise guy), şiret (arch, artful, canny, cord, crafty, cunning, fox-like, gimp, guileful, lace, pawkily, pawky, sharp, sly, slyboots, slyly, string, subtle, tricky, wily), abil (adroit, apt, artful, artistic, artistical, astute, clean, clever, competent, crafty, cunning, deep, deft, dexterous, fit, handy, industrious, knowing, natty, qualified, ready, resourceful, sharp, skilful, skilfully, skilled, skillful, skillfully, sly, smart, subtle, swift-handed, versatile). (various references)

Russian 

находчивый (adroit, cute, gumptious, quickwitted, quick-witted, ready-witted, resourceful, tricky), переменчивый (changeable, mutable), изворотливый (dodgy), изобретательный (ingenious, inventive, man of ideas). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

nestalan (changeable, erratic, fickle, fleeting, impermanent, inconsistent, inconstant, mercurial, skittish, transient, unabiding, unsteady, versatile, volatile, voluble), dovitljiv (apprehensive, clever, gumptious, quick-witted), šeretski (pawky). (various references)

Spanish

sospechoso (dubious, fishy, leery, shady, suspect, suspicious, under a cloud), falso (ambidexter, apostate, bad, bastard, blank, blind, bogus, brummagem, deceptive, dishonest, disingenuous, double-minded, dud, dummy, fake, false, hollow, incorrect, lost, lying, mendacious, phoney, phony, pinchbeck, pseudo, quack, sham, spurious, treacherous, two faced, two-tongued, unsounded, untrue, wrong), astuto (artful, astute, cannie, canny, clever, colic, crafty, cunning, deep, devious, dodgy, foxy, guileful, insidious, knowing, leery, malicious, mischievous, nasty, pawky, politic, sharp, sleeky, slick, sly, smart, tricky, vicious, wide, wily, worldly wise). (various references)

Swedish

slug (artful, astute, cagey, canny, clever, crafty, cunning, designing, foxy, knowing, leery, sharp, shrewd, sly, smart, tricky, wily), lömsk (insidious, low down, ornery, sinister, sly, sneaky, treacherous, underhand). (various references)

Thai

ซี่งมีกลอุบาย. (various references)

Turkish

yapmacık (affected, artificial, campy, chichi, constrained, counterfeit, factitious, false, feigned, genteel, plummy, pretended, put on, rose water, set, sophisticated, studied, studious, theatrical, unnatural), kurnaz (arch, artful, astute, cagey, calculating, canny, cattish, catty, coon, crafty, cunning, cute, designing, dodger, dodgy, downy, feline, Fox, foxy, hard boiled, heady, knowing, leery, politic, quirky, roguish, serpentine, sharp, shrewd, slick, slim, sly, sly old fox, slyboots, smart, subtile, tricky, vulpine, weasel, wheeler dealer, wide awake, wily, wise guy), kaypak (elusive, greasy, lubricous, sleek, slippery, unctuous, unreliable), işini bilir, güvenilmez (beyond belief, discredited, elusive, elusory, faithless, insecure, irresponsible, precarious, slippery, suspicious, treacherous, uncertain, unfaithful, unreliable, unsound, unstable, unsteady, untrustable, untrustworthy, whacky), becerikli (adept, adroit, agile, capable, clever, deft, designing, dexterous, dextrous, efficient, facile, gifted, handsome, ingenious, knowing, light-handed, neat, nimble-fingered, performing, practical, pushful, pushing, ready, resourceful, skilful, skilled, skillful, skilly, slick, smart, versatile, wise). (various references)

Turkmen 

яeser gцzler (shifty eyed). (various references)

Ukrainian

винахідливий (adroit, apposite, daedal, dedal, ingenious, inventive, nimble, quick-witted, ready-witted, resourceful), нечесний (bad, bum, cammed, crooked, dishonest, sharking, sinister, snide, unfair, untrue), ненадійний (chancy, faithless, fallible, incalculable, insecure, precarious, questionable, ramshackle, tickle, treacherous, trustless, truthless, unassured, unreliable, unsafe, unsure, untrustworthy, wacky, whacky). (various references)

Vietnamese 

t� i xoay xở (resourcefulness), quỷ quyệt (insidious, machiavellian, snaky, wily), gian giảo; lắm mưu mẹo. (various references)

Misspellings

"Shifty" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: shafy, Sheeffry, sheffi, shieft, shifta, shifto, shiftx, shitey, shuft, shufty, Shyti, sifty, snifty. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: fishy, shift.

-2 letters: fish, fist, fits, hist, hits, sift, sith, this.

-3 letters: fit, his, hit, ifs, its, shy, sit, sty, thy, tis.

-4 letters: hi, if, is, it, sh, si, ti.

+2 letters: dayshift, fiftyish, fortyish, shiftily.

+3 letters: dayshifts, forsythia, platyfish.

+4 letters: flyweights, forsythias.

+5 letters: faithlessly, fishability, platyfishes, shiftlessly.