Word.ws English Dictionary

on the sly

on the sly adverb: slyly, in an inconspicuous manner, so as not to be seen; secretly; stealthily.

Adverb

on the sly

  1. (idiomatic) Slyly, in an inconspicuous manner, so as not to be seen; secretly; stealthily.
    • This diversion was enjoyed on the sly, and unknown to the ladies of the house.1857, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 16, in The Virginians
    • He was working for us on the sly at the Herald-Traveler-Record-American (before it shortened its topheavy name), then as now a reactionary, homophobic rag. Evidently he placed himself at some risk to help us, I learned later, because he was threatened with dismissal for his unauthorized use of the...1984 December 15, John Kyper, “Remembering David Stryker”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 22, page 5

on the sly meaning in Kannada

on the sly in Kannada

ಕಣ್ಣಿಗೆ ಬೀಳದಂತೆ, ರಹಸ್ಯವಾಗಿ, ಗುಟ್ಟಾಗಿ, ಕಳ್ಳತನದಲ್ಲಿ, ಕಪಟದಿಂದ

Synonyms of on the sly

All synonyms of on the sly

Questions about on the sly

What does on the sly mean?
On the sly means slyly, in an inconspicuous manner, so as not to be seen; secretly; stealthily.
What is on the sly in Kannada?
On the sly in Kannada is ಕಣ್ಣಿಗೆ ಬೀಳದಂತೆ, ರಹಸ್ಯವಾಗಿ, ಗುಟ್ಟಾಗಿ. See On the sly meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is on the sly?
On the sly is an adverb.

Words near on the sly in the dictionary

  1. on the side
  2. on the side of the angels
  3. on the skew
  4. on the skids
  5. on the slide
  6. on the sly
  7. on the sniff
  8. on the spectrum
  9. on the spin
  10. on the spot
  11. on the square

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the sly (page history and authors); on the sly (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-on the sly.ogg.

Cite this entry: “on the sly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_sly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.