What's the difference between devious and insidious?

Devious


Definition:

  • (a.) Out of a straight line; winding; varying from directness; as, a devious path or way.
  • (a.) Going out of the right or common course; going astray; erring; wandering; as, a devious step.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Cholecystectomy provided successful treatment in three of the four patients but the fourth was too ill to undergo an operation; in general, definitive treatment is cholecystectomy, together with excision of the fistulous tract if this takes a direct path through the abdominal wall from the gallbladder, or curettage if the course is devious.
  • (2) He told the court: “We have been trying at the bar to imagine whether we can think of any other group of legal or natural persons, terrorist suspects, arms dealers, Jews, in respect of whose evidence one might even begin to think that one could tenably say, ‘Well, of course, in looking at this evidence I have been very careful because I know from the past that these people are a bit devious and a bit unworthy, and the only thing they’re really interested in is subverting public health.’ ” Yet last week’s judgment, running to 1,000 paragraphs, confirmed in excoriating detail just how determined big tobacco has been down the decades to achieve precisely this goal.
  • (3) "They are alert, cunning and devious individuals who have current knowledge of investigative methods and techniques which may be used against them," said an internal report.
  • (4) In the interim, Gough had also played a devious old friend of the Doctor – by now, Peter Davison – in the 1983 story Arc of Infinity.
  • (5) Ideally they should also possess the sort of clipped tones that make vulgarities sound like Virgil and the sort of wardrobe that dresses up deviousness as a gentleman's sport.
  • (6) You're a devious villain conducting the perfect crime, like the dashing guest star in the opening scene of a classic Columbo.
  • (7) This is in part due to planned obsolescence – a devious ploy by manufacturers bolstered by marketing strategies to make us fall out of love with a product hastily.
  • (8) In the maximum likelihood (ML) method for estimating a molecular phylogenetic tree, the pattern of nucleotide substitutions for computing likelihood values is assumed to be simpler than that of the actual evolutionary process, simply because the process, considered to be quite devious, is unknown.
  • (9) But all of these arguments, Anderson implied, fell on deaf ears because of what he called the “myth of tobacco exceptionalism” – the view that manufacturers are “uniquely devious”.
  • (10) "While millions of working people are either without work, or having their pay frozen or slashed, Britain's boardrooms are finding even more devious ways to squeeze even more cash from their companies," said the general secretary, Len McCluskey.
  • (11) But, at heart, Harper’s team are not that different from politicians across the developed world who have discovered that democracy is a pretty sweet theory but that, in reality, if you want to get hold of power and use it, there are all kinds of devious moves available that have very little to do with that antique idea.
  • (12) These presentations of the devious ease with which the Vatican dissembles also clearly serve as a metaphor for the Catholic church’s unwillingness to address the scandals of priestly paedophilia.
  • (13) They can change their name but it’s the same thing – if people are wise, they will see it is the devious politics of the hard left.” In response to complaints about the email, a Corbyn campaign spokesman said: “At this crucial time for our party and our country, it is essential that we bring Labour together.
  • (14) During the trial's closing arguments Donald's lawyer, Max Blecher, accused Shelly of an "unconscionable", "devious" and "invidious" scheme to strip him of the Clippers.
  • (15) There aren’t enough Trotskyists, entryists, devious Tories and random renegades to explain such an overwhelming victory.
  • (16) The mining magnate says Brough, who is contesting former Speaker Peter Slipper's Sunshine Coast seat of Fisher, has been devious over the James Ashby affair.
  • (17) In the UK, the doughty chair of the public accounts committee, Margaret Hodge, investigating Google for tax avoidance has denounced the firm as "devious", "calculating … and manipulating".
  • (18) The 12 Years a Slave star is perhaps Lee’s most high-profile find , but others who have found success from the Showcases include Randall Park who stars in the upcoming series Fresh off the Boat, as well as Grey’s Anatomy star Jesse Williams, Chadwick Boseman (42) and Dania Ramirez (Devious Maids).
  • (19) The book described Charles’s court as so riven by infighting that it is known by insiders as “Wolf Hall”, after Hilary Mantel’s fictional portrayal of Thomas Cromwell’s devious machinations on behalf of King Henry VIII.
  • (20) The model stipulates that given exposure to sustained aversive maternal control and a maternal communication style which is subtle and devious, the child comes to adapt with approach, stratagem-based behaviours and heightened vigilance for evaluative information (i.e.

Insidious


Definition:

  • (a.) Lying in wait; watching an opportunity to insnare or entrap; deceitful; sly; treacherous; -- said of persons; as, the insidious foe.
  • (a.) Intended to entrap; characterized by treachery and deceit; as, insidious arts.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The controversy over the effects of low-level exposure to radiation enhances the perception of radiation as a particularly insidious phenomenon of nature.
  • (2) Meningiomas of the temporal bone are insidious and aggressive lesions.
  • (3) Onset is generally brutal, as in acute enteritis or an extradigestive infection (ENT...) but persists, or else, more often, the syndrome appears insidiously over several days.
  • (4) As the clinical presentation of "catheter infections" is often uncharacteristic and insidious, a definite diagnosis depends on bacteriological examination of the catheter.
  • (5) Seven of these patients had presented with insidious symptoms, seven had serum markers of hepatitis B infection, and the four who were HBsAg positive had relatively lower serum HBsAg concentrations than did those patients who continued with chronic persistent hepatitis.
  • (6) On the other hand, both blunt trauma and posterior stab wounds frequently caused isolated retroperitoneal duodenal lesions where the diagnosis was not evident on admission, but in which the insidious and progressive development of symptoms and signs drew attention to the need for laparotomy.
  • (7) The clinical presentations were similar to other forms of peritonitis complicating PD except for a more insidious onset.
  • (8) A 56-year-old woman developed insidiously progressive, painless weakness of her left hand.
  • (9) Patients with multiple choledochal stones usually presented with insidious onset of painless jaundice, simulating malignant bile duct obstruction, in contrast to the abrupt onset of cholangitis or pain experienced by patients with one to three stones.
  • (10) A 51-year-old female patient, admitted with a chief complaint of dizziness, had bulging of the occipital area, which had started insidiously.
  • (11) A women with longstanding seropositive rheumatoid arthritis presented with the insidious onset of a hyperviscosity syndrome.
  • (12) Respiratory distress may be insidious in onset and must be anticipated.
  • (13) In childhood, scoliosis is usually insidious and is rarely symptomatic.
  • (14) Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, although it is sometimes unrecognized and insidious, is one of the etiologies to be considered.
  • (15) This is incompetent journalism in its most insidious form."
  • (16) The Spurs were missing simple shots but insidiously squirmed their way back into the game, with James returning to Earth and Leonard in fine shooting form.
  • (17) Peritoneal pseudomyxoma has several main features: it is insidious, recurrent, obstinate and severe.
  • (18) Onset of pain was insidious and the symptoms were thought to be related to synovitis due to SLE.
  • (19) Tracheostomy may be a life saving procedure in these circumstances, but delay may prove fatal when its need arises insidiously.
  • (20) The early and precise diagnosis of linitis plastica-type tumours of the rectum and anal canal is difficult because of their insidious presentation and anaplastic nature.