shifty

English

Etymology

shift +‎ -y

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈʃɪfti/

Adjective

shifty (comparative shiftier, superlative shiftiest)

  1. Subject to frequent changes in direction.
    • 1929, Henry Handel Richardson, Ultima Thule, 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.
  2. (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 Littel’s Living Age, 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 The Wisdom of 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.
  3. 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. […] ’
  4. Full of, or ready with, shifts or expedients.[1]
    • 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.

Derived terms

Translations

References
  1. Thomas Wright, Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English, London: Henry G. Bohn, Volume 2, p. 848: “Cunning; artful” (Craven [Yorkshire]).
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