Sly vs Adept - What's the difference?
sly | adept |
Artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily.
Dexterous in performing an action, so as to escape notice; nimble; skillful; cautious; shrewd; knowing; — in a good sense.
Done with, and marked by, artful and dexterous secrecy; subtle; as, a sly trick.
Light or delicate; slight; thin.
Slyly.
Well skilled; completely versed; thoroughly proficient
* 1837-1839 ,
One fully skilled or well versed in anything; a proficient; as, adepts in philosophy.
* 1841 , , Barnaby Rudge :
* 1894-95 , , Jude the Obscure :
As adjectives the difference between sly and adept
is that sly is artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily while adept is well skilled; completely versed; thoroughly proficient.As an adverb sly
is slyly.As a noun adept is
one fully skilled or well versed in anything; a proficient; as, adepts in philosophy.sly
English
(Webster 1913)Alternative forms
* (l) (obsolete)Adjective
Synonyms
* artful * cunning * knowing * sharp * crafty * shrewd * shifty * sly as a fox * slim * wily * See alsoDerived terms
* sly as a fox * slyboots * slynessExternal links
* *Adverb
Anagrams
* ----adept
English
Adjective
(en-adj)- Adept as she was, in all the arts of cunning and dissimulation, the girl Nancy could not wholly conceal the effect which the knowledge of the step she had taken, wrought upon her mind.
Synonyms
* See alsoAntonyms
* ineptNoun
(en noun)- When he had achieved this task, he applied himself to the acquisition of stable language, in which he soon became such an adept , that he would perch outside my window and drive imaginary horses with great skill, all day.
- Others, alas, had an instinct towards artificiality in their very blood, and became adepts in counterfeiting at the first glimpse of it.
