SHIFTY (shiftier, shiftiest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: shiftier    , shiftiest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does shifty mean? 

• SHIFTY (adjective)
  The adjective SHIFTY has 2 senses:

1. characterized by insincerity or deceit; evasive

2. changing position or direction

  Familiarity information: SHIFTY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SHIFTY (adjective)

Comparative: shiftier   
Superlative: shiftiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Characterized by insincerity or deceit; evasive

Synonyms:

devious; shifty

Context example:

shifty eyes

Similar:

untrustworthy; untrusty (not worthy of trust or belief)

Derivation:

shiftiness (the quality of being a slippery rascal)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Changing position or direction

Synonyms:

shifting; shifty

Context example:

shifty winds

Similar:

unsteady (subject to change or variation)

Derivation:

shift (the act of moving from one place to another)

shiftiness (the quality of being changeable in direction)

 Context examples 

It was an odious face—crafty, vicious, malignant, with shifty, light-grey eyes and white lashes.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

All at once that shifty look came into his eyes which we always see when a madman has seized an idea, and with it the shifty movement of the head and back which asylum attendants come to know so well.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The keys of the mountain passes still lay in the hands of the shifty and ignoble Charles of Navarre, who had chaffered and bargained both with the English and with the Spanish, taking money from the one side to hold them open and from the other to keep them sealed.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)