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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.

In a sly manner; shrewdly; craftily. Honestly and slyly he it spent. Chaucer.

Marked by acuteness or shrewdness; quick in suggestion or reply; vivacious; witty; as, a smart reply; a smart saying. Who, for the poor renown of being smart Would leave a sting within a brother's heart Young. A sentence or two, . . . which I thought very smart. Addison.

The musk shrew. See under Musk.

A genus of small Insectivora, including the common shrews.

Of or pertaining to the Shrew family (Soricidæ); like a shrew in form or habits; as, the soricine bat (Glossophaga soricina).

r of Australia. See Phalanger, Petaurist, and Flying phalanger under Flying. -- Squirrel shrew (Zoöl.), any one of several species of East Indian and Asiatic insectivores of the genus Tupaia. They are allied to the shrews, but have a bushy tail, like that of a squirrel. -- Squirrel-tail grass (Bot.), a grass (Hordeum…

ny branch of learning; qualified by study; learned; as, a man well studied in geometry. I shrewdly suspect that he is little studied of a theory of moral proportions. Burke.

The shrew mole. See under Shrew.

Hence, prudent; calculating; shrewd; wary; subtle; crafty. [R.] "Thou art . . . no novice, but a governor wily and wise." Chaucer. Nor, on the other side, Will I be penuriously wise As to make money, that's my slave, my idol. Beau. & Fl. Lords do not care for me: I am too wise to die yet. Ford.

to cajole. [Obs.] Shak. To word it, to bandy words; to dispute. [Obs.] "To word it with a shrew." L'Estrange.

rld to see How tame, when men and women are alone, A meacock wretch can make the curstest shrew. Shak. -- For all the world. (a) Precisely; exactly. (b) For any consideration. -- Seven wonders of the world. See in the Dictionary of Noted Names in Fiction. -- To go to the world, to be married. [Obs.] "Thus goes every…