Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Playful or michievous.
- adjective Devious or deceptive.
- adjective Requiring care or skill; tricky.
- adjective Artfully decorated or done.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Trickish; cunning; adroit; artful; crafty.
- Deceptive; fallacious; illusive: illusory.
- Playful; sportive; mischievous.
- Trim; dainty; neat; spruce.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Exhibiting artfulness; trickish.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Inclined to
trickery ;sneaky ,devious .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective marked by skill in deception
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Since I can't get you on any 'tricksy' questions about a certain wolf or female psy - how about a question about lifespan?
Q & A Nalini Singh 2009
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Throughout the review Enright makes Vladimir Nabokov's works out to be meaningless, merely esthetic, and "tricksy," yet, at the same time, immoral.
Nabokov Shaw, Peter 1967
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It's kind of tricksy to detect and could be utilized in the Farmville market to purchase some really special items.
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The Tory leader said the Chancellor had used "tricksy" methods to cut pensioners 'income in this week's Budget, without making it clear in his statement to MPs.
Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph 2010
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And even when we could almost imagine we're listening to some kind of tricksy neo-soul, as in 'Lock It', or an obscure offshoot of electro, as in 'Strange Crowd', there's the vocals.
The Line Of Best Fit 2009
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However, Carême, the "king of chefs, and chef of kings" thanks Wikipedia, piques my interest with a particularly tricksy method, in which the egg yolks and water are heated gently until thickened, and "pats of whole butter" are then whisked in to emulsify the butterfat and thin the cooked eggs.
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Rice is a tricksy ingredient and, just like risotto, certain rules must be observed to achieve paella nirvana.
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You don't need it to be tricksy or expressive of modern design—it just needs to tell the time.
The Rebirth of a Classic Jemima Sissons 2011
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His new film is similarly tricksy: in the voiceover, it spins a fictional catastrophe that recalls Cyprus' conflicted past over honeyed footage of blue seas, rustic beehives and golden fields that wouldn't look out of place on a posh holiday programme.
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Luka, confronted by his father's ghostly double – the tricksy, hard-to-pin-down Nobodaddy – embarks on a daredevil mission to the World of Magic, determined to return with the Fire of Life itself and thereby reinvigorate his father.
Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie - review Alex Clark 2010
yarb commented on the word tricksy
He fancied her beholding visions as she wrought the music--visions full of barbaric color and romantic forms. As his mind swam along with the gliding, tricksy phantom of a tune, it seemed as if he too could see these visions--as if he gazed at them through her eyes.
- Harold Frederic, The Damnation of Theron Ware, ch. 19
August 8, 2008