Shifty vs Suspicious - What's the difference?
shifty | suspicious |
Having the appearance of someone dishonest, criminal or unreliable; such as someone with shifty eyes .
Subject to frequent changes in direction.
* 1971 , Henry Handel Richardson, Ultima Thule (page 121)
Full of, or ready with, shifts or expedients.
* Charles Kingsley
Arousing suspicion.
Distrustful or tending to suspect.
Expressing suspicion
As adjectives the difference between shifty and suspicious
is that shifty is having the appearance of someone dishonest, criminal or unreliable; such as someone with shifty eyes while suspicious is arousing suspicion.shifty
English
Adjective
(er)- He was a shifty character in a seedy bar and I checked my wallet was still there after talking to him.
- Off he raced, shuffling his bare feet through the hot, dry, shifty sand. But it was no good: she didn't care.
- (Wright)
- Shifty and thrifty as old Greek or modern Scot, there were few things he could not invent, and perhaps nothing he could not endure.
suspicious
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- His suspicious behaviour brought him to the attention of the police.
- I have a suspicious attitude to get-rich-quick schemes.
- She gave me a suspicious look.