sly

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

On the plane, just a few pages into the novel, I was struck by Wharton’s sly deployment of punctuation.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 5, 2026

Weir’s playing was nimble and intuitive, his voice a sly croon that got appealingly craggy with age.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 11, 2026

"Nobody had agreed to it at all. Really sly," fellow chorister Kevin Doughty says in Con Jones: World's Best Conman.

From BBC • Dec. 31, 2025

Here, it is a man whose labor disappears behind a woman’s byline, a sly inversion of the far more familiar historical pattern.

From Salon • Dec. 25, 2025

He’s got this almost sly look in his eyes, like he gets whenever he tells one of his little jokes.

From "On the Come Up" by Angie Thomas