SHIFTY

shifting, shifty

(adjective) changing position or direction; “he drifted into the shifting crowd”; “their nervous shifting glances”; “shifty winds”

devious, shifty

(adjective) characterized by insincerity or deceit; evasive; “a devious character”; “shifty eyes”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Adjective

shifty (comparative shiftier, superlative shiftiest)

Subject to frequent changes in direction.

(of a person's eyes) Moving from one object to another, not looking directly and steadily at the person with whom one is speaking.

Having the appearance of being dishonest, criminal or unreliable.

Resourceful; full of, or ready with, shifts or expedients.

Source: Wiktionary


Shift"y, a.

Definition: Full of, or ready with, shifts; fertile in expedients or contrivance. 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. C. Kingsley.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

25 December 2024

UNAMBIGUOUS

(adjective) having or exhibiting a single clearly defined meaning; “As a horror, apartheid...is absolutely unambiguous”- Mario Vargas Llosa


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Coffee Trivia

The average annual yield from one coffee tree is the equivalent of 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of roasted coffee. It takes about 4,000 hand-picked green coffee beans to make a pound of coffee.

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