Devious — Meaning, Definition & Synonyms

Devious (adjective) — Senses, Synonyms & Antonyms

1. clever at attaining one's ends by indirect and often deceptive means

   "we always left it to our most devious friends to find out the latest information"

   similar: artful, beguiling, cagey, crafty, cunning, cute, designing, dodgy (chiefly British), foxy, guileful, scheming, shrewd, slick, sly, subtle, tricky, wily
   related: astute, facile, glib, sharp, crooked, deceitful, deceptive, dishonest, fraudulent, insinuating, knavish, Machiavellian, oblique, serpentine, shady, shifty, slippery, sneaky, treacherous, underhand, underhanded, unscrupulous, backhanded, double-dealing, hypocritical, insincere, left-handed, mealy, mealymouthed, smooth-tongued, two-faced, circuitous, circular, roundabout, clandestine, concealed, covert, furtive, hugger-mugger, secret, stealthy, surreptitious, undercover, calculating, plotting
   opposite: artless, guileless, ingenuous, innocent, undesigning
   near: obvious, open, patent, plain, public, unconcealed, aboveboard, candid, direct, forthright, frank, honest, natural, outspoken, plainspoken, real, simple, sincere, straightforward, unaffected, unpretending, unpretentious, unvarnished, childlike, impressionable, simpleminded, unsophisticated, unworldly, unforced, unstudied, trustful, trusting

2. marked by a long series of irregular curves

   "a devious trail through the swampland"

   similar: bending, crazy, crooked, curled, curling, curved, curving, curvy, serpentine, sinuous, tortuous, twisted, twisting, winding, windy
   related: zigzag, zigzagging, circling, coiled, coiling, corkscrew, looping, spiral, spiraling, swirling, circuitous, indirect, roundabout, meandering, rambling, wandering, irregular, jagged, uneven
   opposite: straight, straightaway
   near: direct, linear

3. departing from some accepted standard of what is normal

   "her behavior is devious because of a developmental disorder"

   similar: aberrant, aberrational, abnormal, anomalous, atypical, deviant, deviate, irregular, unnatural, untypical
   related: unrepresentative, extraordinary, preternatural, rare, uncommon, uncustomary, unusual, unwonted, bizarre, curious, far-out, funny, kinky, odd, outlandish, out-of-the-way, outré, peculiar, quaint, queer, queerish, quirky, remarkable, screwy, strange, wacky, way-out, weird, wild, eccentric, freakish, idiosyncratic, nonconformist, unconventional, unorthodox
   opposite: natural, normal, regular, standard, typical
   near: common, commonplace, everyday, familiar, ordinary, routine, run-of-the-mill, run-of-the-mine, unexceptional, unremarkable, workaday, customary, usual, wonted, archetypal, average, characteristic, representative