What's the difference between devious and tricksy?

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.

Tricksy


Definition:

  • (a.) Exhibiting artfulness; trickish.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) These principles may look tricksy or artificial when described rather than experienced but are not, says Catton, an "exoskeleton" – rather they are entirely bound up with the ideas of the book.
  • (2) But what I do share with the hundreds of thousands living with this tricksy condition is disbelief at the stigma and shame still surrounding a disease that affects the brain and which can ultimately affect as many as one in three of us.
  • (3) Last year, the video to Lily Allen's tricksy comeback single, Hard Out Here, showed her under the scrutiny of a plastic surgeon, protesting: "I've had two babies!"
  • (4) Tim Vine gag named funniest joke at Edinburgh Brian Logan on comedy snobs Stewart Lee review – tricksy gags about liberals, rightwingers and ‘the Islams’ Noel Fielding review – solo standup set is a holiday from reality Aziz Ansari: ‘It’s time to get serious’ Lee Mack review – latterday Eric Morecambe is gloriously daft Q&A: Dave Gorman gets to the point – ‘most of the world is lovely’
  • (5) Shappi Khorsandi review – perky gags about porn and prejudice Harry Hill on tour: ukuleles, inflatable sausages and Bradley Wiggins’ sideburns – video Kevin Bridges: ‘I prefer real to surreal’ Stewart Lee review – tricksy gags about liberals, rightwingers and ‘the Islams’ Noel Fielding review – solo standup set is a holiday from reality Aziz Ansari: ‘It’s time to get serious’
  • (6) The meticulous crafting of huge piles of rubbish into tricksy self-portraits - revealed only when light is projected upon the apparently formless heap and shadows are thrown against the wall - in both Dirty White Trash (With Gulls) and The Undesirables - are satisfyingly clever and punning, for example.
  • (7) Their Islamic State hostage sketch is a little glib, but there’s a funny skit about a couple planning (in different ways) to spice up their life together, and a tricksy number, reminiscent of The Pin , where Paul G Raymond and Luke Manning review and perform their show simultaneously.
  • (8) She has not been above being tricksy at the European table before, where that serves her partisan interests, including over the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the commission, where her reported views blew about with the political wind.
  • (9) Arsène Wenger is also still seeking a non-tricksy midfielder and a serious centre-forward, sparking rumours as with the imminent arrival of Godot.
  • (10) More or less everyone says his best position is ahead of the midfield, obviously not as the traditional tricksy No10 but as a hairy chaos machine, someone who can hold the ball up half the time with the help of that famously massive chest of his, and the other half just causing a bit of havoc.
  • (11) No more the tricksy party of protest but, today and in future, and now mature, the nation's essential safeguard inside government.
  • (12) Harman says her contacts with Eustice were never "tricksy".
  • (13) The idea is that it will also learn to understand tricksy human traits such as irony, jokes and puns.
  • (14) One thing Ollie Dabbous didn't want to do was let the hype affect his food, which is clever without being tricksy, and often quite restrained.
  • (15) More comedy coverage Revealed: the nation’s No 1 toilet joke Shappi Khorsandi review – perky gags about porn and prejudice Stewart Lee review – tricksy gags about liberals, rightwingers and ‘the Islams’ Noel Fielding review – solo standup set is a holiday from reality Aziz Ansari: ‘It’s time to get serious’ Lee Mack review – latterday Eric Morecambe is gloriously daft Q&A: Dave Gorman gets to the point – ‘most of the world is lovely’ Ivo Graham review – old Etonian comic revels in inadequacy Rewind and recoil: Joseph Morpurgo’s twisted VHS world of comedy Bill Cosby standup review – at 77, still strikingly casual and effortlessly skilled
  • (16) On one hand, it might have been deliberate; a classic tricksy mind game designed to unsettle a side that had briefly threatened to halt Germany’s progress for good.

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