shifty
Pronunciation
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈʃɪfti/
shifty (comparative shiftier, superlative shiftiest)
- Subject to frequent changes in direction.
- 1929, Henry Handel Richardson, The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney, New York: Norton, Part 2, Chapter 3, p. 145,
- Off he raced, shuffling his bare feet through the hot, dry, shifty sand.
- 2002, Guy Vanderhaeghe, The Last Crossing, New York: Grove, Chapter 17, p. 190,
- The Kelsos crowding their horses up against the wagon, bumping it, making things shake inside: everything going shifty, unsteady.
- 1929, Henry Handel Richardson, The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney, New York: Norton, Part 2, Chapter 3, p. 145,
- (of a person's eyes) Moving from one object to another, not looking directly and steadily at the person with whom one is speaking.
- 1886, George Manville Fenn, This Man’s Wife, Chapter 3, in Eliakim Littell, Volume 168, No. 2178, 20 March, 1886, p. 761,
- […] his quick, shifty eyes turned from the manager to the lethal weapons over the chimney, then to the safe, then to the bank, and Mr. Thickens’s back.
- 1914, G. K. Chesterton, “The Head of Cæsar” in Father Brown, London: Cassell, 1928, p. 149,
- His tinted glasses were not really opaque, but of a blue kind common enough, nor were the eyes behind them shifty, but regarded me steadily.
- 1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, Boston: Little, Brown, Chapter 1.4, p. 10,
- He was thin, unsure of himself, sweet-natured and shifty-eyed; and he was Lata’s favourite.
- 1886, George Manville Fenn, This Man’s Wife, Chapter 3, in Eliakim Littell, Volume 168, No. 2178, 20 March, 1886, p. 761,
- Having the appearance of being dishonest, criminal or unreliable.
- He was a shifty character in a seedy bar, and I checked my wallet was still there after talking to him.
- 1999, J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace, New York: Viking, Chapter 23, p. 208,
- ‘I don’t trust him,’ he goes on. ‘He is shifty. He is like a jackal sniffing around, looking for mischief. […] ’
- Resourceful; full of, or ready with, shifts or expedients.
- 1857, Charles Kingsley, Two Years Ago, Cambridge: Macmillan, Volume 1, Chapter 1, p. 34,
- Shifty and thrifty as old Greek or modern Scot, there were few things he could not invent, and perhaps nothing he could not endure.
- 1857, Charles Kingsley, Two Years Ago, Cambridge: Macmillan, Volume 1, Chapter 1, p. 34,
- Italian: sfuggevole, volubile, mutevole
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004