a. (sb., adv.) Forms: 4 wili, wyli, 4–5 wyle, 4–6 wyly, (4, 6 wely), 5 wilye, (whily, 5–6 wylly, 5, 7 willy), 5–7 (8 Sc.) wylie, 6 wylye, (whyly, Sc. vylie), 6–7 wilie, 8 wiley, 4– wily. [f. WILE sb. + -Y1]
1. Full of or characterized by wiles; crafty, cunning, sly, artful. 2. Of a person or animal (or fig. of a thing personified).
Rarely in a good sense: Astute, clever.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 11807. Þis herods … þat wili [Fairf. wely] wolf.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 9849. He was boþe wyly & sley.
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1728. So reniarde was wyle.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Monk’s Prol., 52. No poure cloystrer ne no Novys Bot a gouernour wily and wys. Ibid., Pars. T., ¶ 252. The serpent that was moost wily of alle othere beestes.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, IV. xxvi. 155. And there he was in grete peryl, for the gyant was a wyly fyghter.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of A., I. vii. B j b. Be he … wyly to deffende hym fro theym, & wysely to assaille them.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 60. Lyke as ye sparowe the wyly byrde escheweth all panters & snares.
1581. A. Hall, Iliad, II. 23. To finde the wilie Vlysses straight downe she tooke hir walke.
1639. J. Clarke, Parœm., 285. As willy as a foxe.
1662. R. Mathew, Unl. Alch., 177. The wily spirits of the Armoniack.
1729. Savage, Wanderer, I. 95. Mark! wiley Fowlers meditate their Doom.
1807. Crabbe, Library, 243. Here wily Jesuits simple Quakers meet.
1878. Bayne, Purit. Rev., ii. 49. The brilliant wily Welshman found himself sharply repelled.
1905. Sir F. Treves, Other Side of Lantern, III. viii. (1906), 225. In the … night the wily tide will glide a shoal across the fairway.
b. Of personal attributes, actions, etc.
c. 1400. Beryn, 444. Tapsters, & oþer such, þat hath wyly wittis To pik mennys pursis.
c. 1407. Lydg., Reson & Sens., 2758. Hercules … by his whily sleyght Bar away the ryche fruyt.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XXIX. (Percy Soc.), 139. She had him caught in suche a wyly snare.
1551. T. Wilson, Logic, C iv b. The wily vsyng of wordes that in sence haue double meanyng.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, IV. iii. 298. Ventidius … by a wily Stratageme, counterfeiting flight and feare.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., II. E 4. The wily suttleties and refluxes of mans thoughts.
1721. Ramsay, Prospect of Plenty, 33. Artfu’ Nets, and Fishers’ wylie Skill.
1850. Kingsley, Alton Locke, xxxvii. Judas’s averted and wily face.
1905. Times Lit. Suppl., 11 Feb., 45/3. An imaginary line … offered no real obstacle to a determined and wily advance.
† 2. ellipt. as sb. A wily person or animal; in quot. c. 1460 as proper name (cf. 4). Obs.
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1995. Þay fel on hym alle, & woried me þis wyly wyth a wroth noyse.
c. 1460. Wisdom, 607, in Macro Plays, 55. Yt ys clepyde wysdom: ‘ware þat!’ quod Wyly.
† 3. as adv. Craftily, cunningly: = WILILY. Obs.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1452. Aþel vessel, Þat wyth so curious a crafte coruen was wyly.
1567. Harman, Caveat, A ij. All these … rabblement of rakehelles, that … do … gayne great almes in all places where they wyly wander.
1574. Satir. Poems Reform., xlii. 59. Thocht for thair tyme sum wylie winkit.
1623. Cockeram, Wily, craftily.
4. Special Collocations and Combinations. † a. Wily-man, wily-pie [PIE sb.1], wily-wat [WAT1], appellations for a crafty or cunning fellow (the first as a proper name). Obs.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. V. 27. Then waryn wysman and wyly-man his felawe Fayn were to folwen hem.
c. 1450. Chance of Dice, 147, in Engl. Studien, LIX. 9. Lorde verrely ye ben a wyly pye.
1542–79. [see PIE sb.1 2].
1550. Bale, Apol., 73. Ye are a wyly watte in the kyngdome of crafte and generacion of falshede. Ibid. (c. 1550), K. Johan (Camden), 3. Ye are a wylly wat, & wander here full warelye.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 244 b. Osorius is a wylypye, and will not be destitute of a starting hoale.
[1587. Harrison, England, II. iii. 149/1. Oh madam (saith he) the wiliest pie of all, these are no pies but soules in purgatorie that craue releefe.]
† b. Wily beguile, also freq. in jingling form wily beguily (and similar expressions): orig. in phr. to play wily beguile oneself (also later in various corrupt forms), to act wilily in such a way as to be oneself beguiled, to be entrapped by one’s own craftiness; hence wily beguily (rarely wily beguile, gilie, guile) as sb. phr. (a) a person who acts thus, or (simply) who acts wilily or craftily; (b) an act of this kind, or (simply) a wily act or action, a crafty trick, cunning trickery; rarely as adj., an emphatic extension of wily. Obs.
1555. Latimer, in Strype, Eccl. Mem. (1721), III. App. xxxvi. 103. Let men beware that they play not wylye begile themselves, as I feare me they do that go to masse. Ibid. Thus they play wyly, beguylyng them selves.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 103. To whiche smart mocke, and wyly begylyng, He … saide [etc.].
1570. Foxe, A. & M. (ed. 2), 193/2. While they thinke to deceaue the simple, these wylye begely most of all deceaue them selues.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 303 b. Sufficiently instructed in those your wyly beguilye and … to well acquainted with your ambitious hawtynes.
1589. [? Nashe], Almond for Parrat, 17 b. The wicked … being so full of their wilie gilies.
1606. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. Magnificence, 684. Smiles, Wylie-Guiles, queint witty-pretty Toyes.
1618. Breton, Courtier & Countryman, C 4 b. What is the end of all wily beguily? seeking to deceiue other, deceiu’d himselfe most of all.
1621. Bp. Mountagu, Diatribæ, 137. It shall go hard, but our wily-beguily Wits, will one way or other finde an euasion.
1625. J. Robinson, Observ., xv. 102. Such wily-beguilies may for a time … get the opinion of prudent, and politick persons.
1639. J. Clarke, Parœm., 101. Wilie beguilie deceives himself.
c. Comb. (of the adj. or adv.), as wily-headed, wily-witty adjs.
1596. Spenser, State Irel., Wks. (Globe), 619/1. They are … soe cautelous and wylye-headed.
1624. Gee, Foot out of Snare, App. 108. I shall begin to recant my opinion of his wily-witty worth.
