1
as in shady
given to acting in secret and to concealing one's intentions
his opponent's sneaky campaign manager was clearly up to something
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2
as in sneak
undertaken or done so as to escape being observed or known by others
a sneaky plan to replace the priceless painting with a copy
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of sneaky
Herr says the company is about to release a domestic version that can help with three-hour time differences—which, as any coast-to-coast traveler can tell you, can be a sneaky energy suck.
—
Aislyn Greene, AFAR Media, 31 July 2025
The Dodgers might be content to let Snell and Sasaki get healthy and focus on the bullpen at the trade deadline, but there's one sneaky arm Los Angeles should consider if the price is right.
—Jackson Roberts, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 July 2025
Miranda and Andy bond and bicker until it’s revealed that Inevitable New Character has a sneaky plan to overthrow the boss.
—Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 28 July 2025
Theo was funny, cool, affable, confident around adults, often charmingly sneaky, a bit of a trickster.
—Vinson Cunningham, New Yorker, 27 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for sneaky
Aislyn Greene, AFAR Media, 31 July 2025
The Dodgers might be content to let Snell and Sasaki get healthy and focus on the bullpen at the trade deadline, but there's one sneaky arm Los Angeles should consider if the price is right.
—Jackson Roberts, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 July 2025
Miranda and Andy bond and bicker until it’s revealed that Inevitable New Character has a sneaky plan to overthrow the boss.
—Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 28 July 2025
Theo was funny, cool, affable, confident around adults, often charmingly sneaky, a bit of a trickster.
—Vinson Cunningham, New Yorker, 27 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for sneaky
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sneaky
Adjective
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On bright sunny days in summer, look for a shady place where light intensity is reduced.—
Anthony A. Ciuffa,
Outdoor Life,
7 Aug. 2025
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Once they’ve been admitted, users have access to profiles of men annotated with information such as background checks and dating reviews; men with shady dating histories are rated with red flags.—
Kyle Chayka,
New Yorker,
6 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Its power rests in Benicio del Toro as the shady international businessman Anatole Korda, a sly, seductive operator who is trying to firm up his many enterprises and bequeath them to his daughter, Liesl, played marvelously by Mia Threapleton.—
Taylor Antrim,
Vogue,
21 July 2025
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But the screenplay by Yoni Brenner and Etan Cohen is generally much smarter than that, featuring a plethora of sly one-liners revolving more around characterizations than pop-culture references.—
Frank Scheck,
HollywoodReporter,
24 July 2025
Adjective
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Party leaders could reveal what their rivals were cooking up and reporters could penetrate clandestine deal-making through sources.—
Dan Walters,
Mercury News,
15 Aug. 2025
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Nic Carter, a crypto venture capitalist, then coined the term Operation Choke Point 2.0, referring to an Obama administration clandestine operation to debank undesirable industries including firearms dealers and payday lenders in the early 2010s.—
Billy Bambrough,
Forbes.com,
6 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Here's are the signs to watch (and listen and smell) for that indicate the presence of these stealthy creatures in your home.—
Kathy Barnes,
Better Homes & Gardens,
9 Aug. 2025
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The brute-force safecracking methods Zhou points to, like cutting and drilling are far slower and less stealthy—or, like the Little Black Box, are available only to locksmiths and haven’t been publicly shown to be exploitable by unauthorized hackers.—
Andy Greenberg,
Wired News,
8 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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He is aided by Yasir Abbas, a weapons specialist; Raghuveer Singh, a sniper who served in Kashmir and Tawang; Uday Bhan, an explosives expert; and Sukhbir Singh, an Indian agent undercover in Pakistan posing as a Karachi stockbroker.—
Time,
Time,
13 Aug. 2025
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Wednesday’s hearing before Magistrate Judge Shannon G. Elkins in downtown Minneapolis focused on several motions from Eichorn, including one to drop the charges and for the defense to be able to call the undercover officer who posed as a 17-year-old girl to testify.—
Mary Murphy,
Twin Cities,
6 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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In it, deaf canteen employee Alison Brooks (Rose Ayling-Ellis) lands an under-the-table gig as a covert lip reader for the police and finagles her way into the apex of an upcoming heist operation.—
Randy Myers,
Mercury News,
1 Aug. 2025
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Reports have long suggested that Iran has increasingly engaged in covert malign behavior to target foreign citizens.—
Caitlin McFall,
FOXNews.com,
31 July 2025
Adjective
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Germany is a land of quiet resilience and reinvention—where Berlin pulses with raw creativity—alive with graffiti, avant-garde galleries, and thumping underground beats.—
Lewis Nunn,
Forbes.com,
14 Aug. 2025
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Tunneling too close to the river could risk breaching the water table and filling a karst formation, or underground cave — potentially triggering leaks of construction materials into the waterway.—
Stuart Dyos,
Nashville Tennessean,
14 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Sneaky.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sneaky. Accessed 21 Aug. 2025.
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