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springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest; corrupt; as, sinister aims. Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts. Bacon. He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts. South. He read in their looks . . . sinister intentions directed particularly toward himself. Sir W. Scott.…

Dexterous in performing an action, so as to escape notice; nimble; skillful; cautious; shrewd; knowing; -- in a good sense. Be ye sly as serpents, and simple as doves. Wyclif (Matt. x. 16). Whom graver age And long experience hath made wise and sly. Fairfax.

obtained by a single quick movement; hence, a bite, morsel, or fragment; a scrap. He's a nimble fellow, And alike skilled in every liberal science, As having certain snaps of all. B. Jonson.

Active; brisk; nimble; quick; sharp. [Archaic or Prov. Eng. & Scot.] That horny-handed, snell, peremptory little man. Dr. J. Brown.

Not dilatory or slow; quick; swift; nimble; hasty; rapid in motion or performance; as, a speedy flight; on speedy foot. I will wish her speedy strength. Shak. Darts, which not the good could shun, The speedy ould outfly. Dryden.

Full of spirit or of life; earnest; vivacious; lively; brisk; nimble; gay. [Obs.] -- Spright"ful*ly, adv. [Obs.] Shak. -- Spright"ful*ness, n. [Obs.] Spoke like a sprightful gentlemen. Shak. Steeds sprightful as the light. Cowley.

Having great power of leaping or running; nimble; active. [U.S. & Local Eng.] She is as spry as a cricket. S. Judd (Margaret). If I'm not so large as you, You are not so small as I, And not half so spry. Emerson.

Nimble; fleet. Mir. for Mag.

Nimble; quick. [Obs. or Prov. Eng. & Slang]

Tight; nimble. [Obs.] Of a good stirring strain too, she goes tith. Beau. & Fl.

A step or stepping; pressure with the foot; a footstep; as, a nimble tread; a cautious tread. She is coming, my own, my sweet; Were it ever so airy a tread, My heart would hear her and beat. Tennyson.

Quick; nimble; stepping lightly and quickly.

In a tripping manner; with a light, nimble, quick step; with agility; nimbly. Sing, and dance it trippingly. Shak. Speak the speech . . . trippingly on the tongue. Shak.

Nimble; light and quick; active; rapid. "His volant touch." Milton.

Moving with ease and smoothness in uttering words; of rapid speech; nimble in speaking; glib; as, a flippant, voluble, tongue. [Cassio,] a knave very voluble. Shak.

A nimble little fellow; a whippersnapper. Every puny whipster gets my sword. Shak.

Swift; nimble; agile; strong and active. [Obs. or Poetic] 'T is full wight, God wot, as is a roe. Chaucer. He was so wimble and so wight. Spenser. They were Night and Day, and Day and Night, Pilgrims wight with steps forthright. Emerson.

Active; nimble.[Obs.] Spenser.