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Skillful or artful management; dexterity in contrivance or the use of means; art; stratagem; artifice; plot; -- usually in a bad sense. [Obs.] Bacon. He sought to have that by practice which he could not by prayer. Sir P. Sidney.

A sly or artful person. Whitgift. General practitioner. See under General, 2.

Prudent; wise; hence, crafty; artful; wily. [Obs.] Clerks be full subtle and full quaint. Chaucer.

A sudden turn; a starting from the point or line; hence, an artful evasion or subterfuge; a shift; a quibble; as, the quirks of a pettifogger. "Some quirk or . . . evasion." Spenser. We ground the justification of our nonconformity on dark subtilties and intricate quirks. Barrow.

the timbers and planks, as a ship, for the preservation of the timber. To salt a mine, to artfully deposit minerals in a mine in order to deceive purchasers regarding its value. [Cant] -- To salt away, To salt down, to prepare with, or pack in, salt for preserving, as meat, eggs, etc.; hence, colloquially, to save, lay…

Given to forming schemes; artful; intriguing. -- Schem"ing*ly, adv.

A rapacious, artful person; a sharper. [Colloq.]

Artful; wily; cunning; arch. These women are shrewd tempters with their tongues. Shak.

Not deceitful or artful; honest; sincere. I speak it with a single heart. Shak.

Cunning; craft; artful practice. [Obs.] "His sleight and his covin." Chaucer.

Artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily. For my sly wiles and subtle craftiness, The litle of the kingdom I possess. Spenser.

Sly; crafty; cunning; artful. [R.]

Sly; artful; cunning; crafty; subtle; as, a subtile person; a subtile adversary; a subtile scheme. [In this sense now commonly written subtle.]

Sly in design; artful; cunning; insinuating; subtile; -- applied to persons; as, a subtle foe. "A subtle traitor." Shak.

The quality or state of being subtle, or sly; cunning; craftiness; artfulness. The fox which lives by subtlety. Shak.

In a subtle manner; slyly; artfully; cunningly. Thou seest how subtly to detain thee I devise. Milton.

Given to tricks; artful in making bargains; given to deception and cheating; knavish. -- Trick"ish*ly, adv. -- Trick"ish*ness, n.

Exhibiting artfulness; trickish. "My tricksy spirit!" Shak. he tricksy policy which in the seventeenth century passed for state wisdom. Coleridge.

Having no artful, ulterior, or fraudulent purpose; sincere; artless; simple.

Absence of simplicity; artfulness. C. Kingsley.