What's the difference between wily and wiry?

Wily


Definition:

  • (superl.) Full of wiles, tricks, or stratagems; using craft or stratagem to accomplish a purpose; mischievously artful; subtle.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) They could go out and trade for a pitcher such as the New York Mets’ Bartolo Colón , an obvious choice despite his 41 years, but he would come with an $11m price tag for next season and have to pass through the waiver wires process first – considering the wily mood Billy Beane is in this year, the A’s could be the team that blocks such a move.
  • (2) A wily character, he initially refused, saying the deadline was impossible.
  • (3) Noted for his Savile Row suits and languid charm, he was nevertheless a tough and wily reporter in the field, using his wits to escape death on more than one occasion.
  • (4) The News of the World said it was £750,000 ("Wily Vanessa teamed up with PR to the stars Max Clifford and the pound signs began rolling in her eyes," its reporter claimed).
  • (5) on Saturday the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott summed up the feelings of many in the party when he suggested that the "wily" Tories had deliberately used their coalition partners as shields to deflect public anger.
  • (6) Scotland shows how that can give an illusion of success which will evaporate at the moment of choice, especially when up against a wily and ruthless incumbent.
  • (7) The wily Brazilian, managing in a record sixth World Cup, said he would make "one, maybe two" changes to the starting line‑up.
  • (8) Wily and smart, she is more than a match for the suitors who attempt to claim her in his absence; and she is no pushover, either, when Odysseus finally turns up.
  • (9) Opinion polls in recent months have repeatedly shown that Tsvangirai's popularity has been hurt by divisions within the opposition and his own scandalous love-life , putting him and Mugabe neck-and-neck, with the wily president even edging in front on occasion.
  • (10) Harradine was a wily negotiator and kept Howard guessing on his support for the goods and services tax.
  • (11) Team spirit might be an ethereal quality that is difficult to quantify on scoreboards and league tables but Karanka has given confidence to the players he inherited, been a wily transfer dealer, particularly this season with the loan signings of the strikers Patrick Bamford and Jelle Vossen, and brought through young home-grown players from the club’s academy, such as Ben Gibson and Adam Reach, who are now integral members of the squad.
  • (12) But out of nothing, Frank Farina's men were awarded a penalty just before half-time won by the wily Del Piero.
  • (13) Guns, gates and guards can only provide so much protection against a wily, creative adversary who is willing to risk oblivion.
  • (14) The wily old tease may have been mugging for the studio audience, lapping up the howls of disappointment that no doubt followed such a statement.
  • (15) A blizzard of visual sexual signifiers – fake nails, big hair, Dita Von Teese figure balanced on impossibly high stilts – and her "Jessica Rabbit sex appeal" (again, self-proclaimed) belies a wily business brain.
  • (16) Wily Ukraine national coach Oleg Blokhin also tasted victory in court after he was forced to resign from the position because of his other job, as a Ukrainian MP.
  • (17) He flew to Brazil hoping to bring him back, but he had underestimated the wily Biggs whose girlfriend, Raimunda, announced that she was expecting his child.
  • (18) Wily David Carney chalked one up for the nay-saying ageists by outfoxing youngster Thomas Deng to execute a superb run and finish, one which was harder than it may have seemed.
  • (19) After Cantor fell, McCarthy showed himself a wily tactician, coming fast out of the block and letting it be known he was the heir apparent with the necessary votes, all but sealing the majority leader race within 48 hours.
  • (20) So, when browsing, an open mind is far more effective than knowing exactly what you want – eBay works topically, so avoid anything worn by Kate Middleton and all high-street capsule collections, eg last week's Versace line for H&M, which wily types bought en masse and are currently reselling at marked-up prices.

Wiry


Definition:

  • (a.) Made of wire; like wire; drawn out like wire.
  • (a.) Capable of endurance; tough; sinewy; as, a wiry frame or constitution.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Like the strikingly similar landscapes of low wiry vegetation that you can now see in some former rainforest areas in the tropics, these habitats have been created through repeated cycles of cutting and burning.
  • (2) • Finally, if the London Marathon goes ahead on schedule, spare a thought during the day for one runner – a balding, wiry, smiling figure called Joe Derrett.
  • (3) Physically, he has a sort of wiry poise, often standing on the balls of his feet, but there is also something diffident, almost shyly polite, about him.
  • (4) On approach, he looks a bit like the ageing rock star he might have been (he was famously in punk band the Dreamboys with US chatshow host Craig Ferguson in his youth), wiry in dark glasses and heavy boots.
  • (5) Friendship Alfredo Scappaticci, small, barrel-chested with classic Mediterranean olive skin and wiry black hair, was born to an Italian immigrant family in west Belfast in the late 1940s and became a bricklayer.
  • (6) A white English family is described with autosomal dominant woolly wiry hair.
  • (7) At Elay, Oman Nygwo, a wiry 40-year-old in cut-off jeans, gives a tour of deserted huts and points to a line of mango trees that mark his old home on the banks of the Baro.
  • (8) A wiry 57, he arrives for lunch at Bar Pitti on Sixth Avenue, New York City, looking debonair in a cashmere Canali sports jacket.
  • (9) They include Ariyoshi Rune, a tall, wiry 47-year-old truck driver whose slicked-back hair and sideburns are inspired by his idol, Joe Strummer.
  • (10) Vardy weighs 73kg (11st 7lb) and with that wiry frame he looks as if he is not carrying an ounce of fat.
  • (11) "Now he is not just a skinny guy, he's a strong wiry guy," he adds, pride evident.
  • (12) Tall, wiry, a cigarette invariably dangling from his full lips, he had a lopsided grin and a nose that may have been broken in the ring, or the result of hitting himself with a rifle butt to end his military service.
  • (13) At Housmans, in Kings Cross, London – one of the longest-running radical bookshops in the country, launched by a group of pacifists – wiry co-manager Malcolm Hopkins, dressed head to toe in black, pulls up a chair in front of a row of Trotsky biographies and recounts the changes he's seen in the sector in past decades.
  • (14) Photograph: James Harkin for the Guardian We drop in on Amjad, a wiry fellow oppositionist who now considers both sides as bad as each other.
  • (15) Mom – Futurama Named by Forbes as fiction's fourth-richest individual, the ruthless MomCorp CEO is a wiry plutocrat, manufacturing endless platoons of killbots.
  • (16) Dembélé’s wiry strength, control and acceleration stood out while at times like these, it is impossible to look at Alli and realise that he is still only 19.
  • (17) I also like the maidenhair fern Adiantum aleuticum ‘Imbricatum’ ; its wiry black stems have fronds that radiate out like spreading fingers.
  • (18) Small, wiry and dark, Chowdhury recalls the bullets skimming past his right leg as the men opened fire – just as he can recollect the events leading up to the attack.
  • (19) For Herbie, a wiry-haired mongrel, it's a time of mixed emotions.
  • (20) The wiry-haired lawyer turned anti-gambling activist is standing in the gaming room of the Meadow Inn hotel, situated in Fawkner, an unremarkable northern suburb of Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city.