a. Now rare. [ad. late L. subdolōsus or f. its source subdolus, f. sub- SUB- 19 + dolus cunning.] Crafty, cunning, sly.
1588. A. King, trans. Canisius’ Catech., R iij. The subdolous crafte and deceate of Satan.
1637. Gillespie, Eng.-Pop. Cerem., Ep. A 2 b. The subdolous Machiavellian.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., Wks. 1687, I. 65. Illusive simulations and subdolous artifices.
1828. D’Israeli, Chas. I., I. 269. The King was troubled, lest this subdolous and eloquent man should shake his resolution.
1843. Syd. Smith, Lett. Amer. Debts, i. The subdolous press of America contends that the English … would act with their own debt in the same manner.
1880. W. Cory, Mod. Engl. Hist., I. 102. Nor has any maxim so subdolous as this been devised to abridge the freedom of Britons.
Hence Subdolously adv., Subdolousness.
1635. Person, Varieties, I. 28. Take heed of the subdolousnesse of their proposition, which is not universally true.
1643. Baker, Chron. (1653), 554. See the subdolousnesse of this man.
1681. Evelyn, Lett. to Pepys, 6 Dec., in Diary & Corr. (1852), III. 260. I neither would, nor honestly could, conceal … how subdolously they dealt.
1824. Blackw. Mag., XVI. 345. Whisky … mixed subdolously with burnt brown sugar.
1862. T. A. Trollope, Marietta, xxii. Nanni had subdolously stretched out his hand sideways … to administer a squeeze to a rosy little hand that timidly stole out half-way to meet his.
