Shrewd vs Insidious - What's the difference?
shrewd | insidious |
showing clever resourcefulness in practical matters
artful, tricky or cunning
streetwise
*
knowledgeable
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=November 10
, author=Jeremy Wilson
, title=tEngland Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report
, work=Telegraph
(archaic) Scolding, satirical, sharp.
* 1599 ,
Producing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner.
* 1847 , George Lippard, The Quaker City: or, The monks of Monk-Hall
* 1997 , Matthew Wood, The book of herbal wisdom: using plants as medicine
* 2007 , Sharon Weinstein, Ada Lawrence Plumer, Principles and practice of intravenous therapy
Intending to entrap; alluring but harmful.
* Nathaniel Hawthorne
* 1948 , D.V. Chitaley (editor or publisher), All India Reporter , volume 3, page 341:
* 1969 , Dorothy Brewster, John Angus Burrell, Dead reckonings in fiction
* 2005 , Anita Desai, Voices in the City , page 189:
* 2007 , Joseph Epstein, Narcissus Leaves the Pool , page 171:
(nonstandard) Treacherous.
* 1858 , Phineas Camp Headley, The life of the Empress Josephine: first wife of Napoleon
* 1912 , Ralph Straus, The prison without a wall
As adjectives the difference between shrewd and insidious
is that shrewd is showing clever resourcefulness in practical matters while insidious is producing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner.shrewd
English
Adjective
(er)citation, page= , passage=The most persistent tormentor was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who scored a hat-trick in last month’s corresponding fixture in Iceland. His ability to run at defences is instantly striking, but it is his clever use of possession that has persuaded some shrewd judges that he is an even better prospect than Theo Walcott. }}
- LEONATO. By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband, if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue.
Derived terms
* shrewdly * shrewdnessinsidious
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- Strong and vigorous man as he looks, Livingstone has been for years the victim of a secret and insidious disease.
- At some point in time they may become the source of an insidious cancer.
- The nurse always must be alert to signs of slow leak or insidious infiltration.
- The insidious whisper of the bad angel.
- All these facts clearly appear to me now to establish that the sanctioned scheme was a part of a bigger and […] more insidious scheme which was to hoodwink the creditors and to firmly establish and consolidate the position […]
- The atmosphere of this insidious city comes out to meet him the moment he touches the European shore; for in London he meets Maria Gostrey just over from France.
- This seemed to her the worst defilement into which this insidious city had cheated her and in her agitation, she nearly ran into the latrine, […]
- This is the insidious way sports entrap you: you follow a player, which commits you to his team. You begin to acquire scraps of utterly useless information about teammates, managers, owners, trainers, agents, lawyers.
- Hansel and Gretel were lured by the witch’s insidious gingerbread house.
- But with whom do you contract that alliance? With the natural enemy of France — that insidious house of Austria — which detests our country from feeling, system, and necessity.
- ‘Believe me,’ he shouted, ‘these insidious folk talk dangerous nonsense. I hear they are spouting out their ridiculous platitudes not five miles from this park in which we are standing…’
- The battle was lost due to the actions of insidious defectors.