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Canny vs Sly - What's the difference?

canny | sly | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between canny and sly

is that canny is careful, prudent, cautious while sly is artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily.

As an adverb sly is

slyly.

canny

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Careful, prudent, cautious.
    • (Ramsay)
  • Knowing, shrewd, astute.
    • (Sir Walter Scott)
  • Frugal, thrifty.
  • (Scotland, Northumbria) Pleasant, fair.
    • She's a canny lass hor like!
  • * 1783 , (Robert Burns), "Green Grow the Rashes O", Songs and Ballads
    • But gie me a cannie hour at e'en,
    My arms about my dearie O;
    An' warl'y cares, an' warl'y men,
    Mae a' gae tapsalteerie O!
  • (Northumbria) Very or much.
    • That's a canny big horse, man!

    Derived terms

    * cannily * canniness

    Related terms

    * uncanny (Note: In common modern usage, "canny" and "uncanny" are no longer antonyms.)

    References

    * * * *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    sly

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Alternative forms

    * (l) (obsolete)

    Adjective

  • 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.

    • Synonyms

    * artful * cunning * knowing * sharp * crafty * shrewd * shifty * sly as a fox * slim * wily * See also

    Derived terms

    * sly as a fox * slyboots * slyness

    External links

    * *

    Adverb

  • Slyly.

    • Anagrams

    * ----