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Sly vs Sty - What's the difference?

sly | sty |

As an adjective sly

is artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily.

As an adverb sly

is slyly.

As a noun sty is

a pen or enclosure for swine.

As a verb sty is

to place in, or as if in, a sty.

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

    * ----

    sty

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (sties)
  • A pen or enclosure for swine.
  • (figurative) A messy, dirty or debauched place.
  • * Milton
    • To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty .
    Synonyms
    * (enclosure for swine) pigpen, pigsty * (messy or dirty place) hovel, pigsty

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To place in, or as if in, a sty.
    • (Shakespeare)
  • To live in a sty, or any messy or dirty place.

    • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), .

    Alternative forms

    * stee, stie, stigh

    Verb

  • (label) To ascend, rise up, climb.
  • * 1395 , (John Wycliffe), Bible , Isaiah LIII:
    • And he schal stie as a ?erde bifor him, and as a roote fro þirsti lond.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.xi:
    • The beast impatient of his smarting wound, / And of so fierce and forcible despight, / Thought with his wings to stye aboue the ground [...].
    Derived terms
    * *

    Noun

    (sties)
  • A ladder.

    • Etymology 3

    Probably a .

    Alternative forms

    * stye

    Noun

    (sties)
  • (label) An inflammation of the eyelid.