How To Use Devious In A Sentence

The infinite deviousness of "the ruling classes" and the immense difficulty of the left's task are a given in these halls.
So Foster's got this vaguely martyr-like songbird persona she's working, and sometimes the devious witch bit sticks out too, as on ‘Crackerjack Fool’.
Private investigators have traditionally been perceived as shadowy and devious.
Human nature is greedy, devious and sleazy, and most salacious tabloid stories are merely reflecting that fact.
he got the promotion by behaving deviously

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It is willing to be underhand and devious. Times, Sunday Times
None of these characters is evil, none commits the transgression that precipitates the suicide, but all are driven, understandably yet horrifyingly, to behave in devious ways that wound others badly. Cover to Cover
You have to be a bit devious if you're going to succeed in business.
You have to be a bit devious if you're going to succeed in business.
The rapist who wins women's trust and then abuses them is a more sophisticated, devious and frightening operator.
He knows about devious tactics. Times, Sunday Times
YOU might know that Cancer is sensitive and artistic - but what about grumpy and devious? The Sun
Susan is a devious person and we can't depend on her.
A devious grin crossed his face as his clear grey eyes twinkled with amusement.
And they've been trying to shake off their reputation for sneakiness, deviousness, and just plain disgustingness, hoping for a new image in the 21st century.
He got rich by devious means.
It never occurred to that subtle, devious mind that an outward display of frankness might be more mendacious than any evasion. THE THORN BIRDS
A former employer that had taken to issuing promises instead of paychecks, seems to have saved money by an even more devious method.
You can always get what you want by bribery and corruption, dishonesty and deviousness.
It's a devious and underhand tactic. Times, Sunday Times
RE a previous post – ‘sleekit’ is a Scots word meaning sly, shifty, conniving, devious etc. Police Search Too Few White People SHOCK!! « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG
Although compared to Medea, Medusa and Circe, Lumley seems more angry pussycat than classical tigress; but she does deliver Goldman's one-liners with the right snap, crackle and pop, and suggests a devious mind at work. The Lion in Winter - review
The propagandists were often as skilful and as devious as the great Prussian Junker himself.
It was unthinkable that any one save a thief and an out-right scoundrel, such by the way as were all of his business rivals and the men who refused to tote and carry at his bidding, should make a threat like that; worse than unthinkable, utterly, depravedly disgraceful that one of the house of Packard should resort to such devious and damnable practices. Man to Man
He celebrated the larrikin streak in the Australian soul, the irreverence, the hedonism and physicality and of course the bloody-minded stoicism, obduracy and deviousness.
He's a nasty, stupid, oafish and worryingly devious main character and put up against Homer, it's inevitable which one the public would go for.
Just as our daily reality is posited on many illusions, so is literature, which is, after all, only an aspect of this devious life.
It always seems to me a kind of spiteful and devious and underhanded sort of job.
Boo Hoo, I preach hate and racism and now I think other people used it in 'devious' fashion. gimme a break. goodtimepolitics Wright breaks silence, says attacks 'unfair'
It always seems to me a kind of spiteful and devious and underhanded sort of job.
Mr Latham said it suggested ‘a devious and calculating mind well able to think about what he needed to do to distract attention away from himself’.
But prison officers say a large number of claims come from devious cons in overcrowded cells. The Sun
Such explanations of his conduct as he has given from time to time have been devious and untruthful.
As his wife, she does one of her practiced turns as a deviously maniacal suburban matron.
If they had any skills other than devious animal cunning, they would have looked closer at the boy.
That the process involves the FCO in dishonesty, deviousness and dishonour is emphatically encapsulated in the apparent scheme whereby Brussels will delay proposals to scrap Britain's annual £3 billion rebate. Archive 2007-12-23
Cantor was barely able to utter this single word, so full of suspense, desire, triumph, and some deviousness.
Let's take the devious route home.
What is difficult about maneuver is to make the devious route the most direct and to turn misfortune to advantage.
You have to be a bit devious if you're going to succeed in business.
It's made me devious and dishonest because I will do anything to find a way to pluck hairs and get that sense of relief. The Sun
He agreed with Pareto that universal suffrage promoted the corrupt and devious political skills of the flatterer, the wheeler-dealer, and the populist demagogue.
The entrance was a spectacular doline 150m across and 100m deep where a devious route down lunged from tree to tree with only the occasional bamboo ladder or dodgy hand line for assistance.
If you work for someone who is so unsure of themself that it causes them to overreact or be spiteful or devious, it's unlikely that you're going to change them.
One of them proposes a devious plan. Ambassadors: From Ancient Greece to the Nation State
It dissects (a shade too scientifically and cold-bloodedly at times perhaps) the sentiments and emotions associated with attack and defence; the impulses that eventuate in heroism; the alternating super-sensitiveness and callousness of the nerves; fear and the mastery of fear; the 'hope deferred that maketh the heart sick'; the devious stratagems of the terrible 'cafard' (blues). The Jervaise Comedy
Let's take the devious route home.
Cornwell cheerfully confesses that there is absolutely no evidence that Aethelred was the weak and devious snake depicted in "Sword Song" and "Burning Land", and that he is taking shameless advantage of the fact that setting his stories in a relatively obscure period igives him the opportunity to use some artistic licence! Sword Song, by Bernard Cornwell. Book review
We cannot have such a morally bankrupt, devious, duplicitous, disingenuous and cold-hearted ‘little king’ returned to power this year.
He took a rather devious route which avoids the city centre.
This results in a personality which is cunning and devious, and refuses to grow up and take responsibility for itself.
Into and across tree-ferned ravines, through dashing streams of icy water, past cataract and morass, the party plowed its devious way until long past noon. The Rogue Elephant The Boys' Big Game Series
The reality is he was an intelligent, devious businessman who was in it solely for his own profit.
Ian: Well, it was a Ben Yalow job, and Ben is a very clever guy who is adept at using parliamentary procedure in devious ways. Science Fiction Awards Watch » Blog Archive » Business Meeting Report
The latter two are deviously funny as perverts, self-aggrandising but insecure bounty hunters, game-show-host-styled hangmen, and lords and ladies of the depraved aristocracy.
Add to the fact of the challenge, another fact, that she is of Irish blood, and that her gallery gods are just inside the door, and it is a pity her audience should be merely the hens and I. Thus do I ever hover at hand, softly applausive of my mother's defense of her garden, secretly appreciative of the devious ways of vegetables, witnessing -- to forgive -- the wanderings of my father's flock. The Joys of Being a Woman and Other Papers
That is the sort of devious, dodgy tactic this Government gets up to.
They're cunning, they're devious, they're calculating.
She seemed so innocent, her previous deviousness and cunning gone in a flash.
They are duplicitous and devious, always posing, not wishing or able to be authentic.
His relationship with the universe becomes more subtle and devious.
His policy was at times devious but also essentially sincere in that avoidance of war was his real aim. The Collins History of the World in the 20th Century
All the rest -- acres of pasture, cleared and grassed, stretches of fertile ground, blocks of noble timber still uncut -- had passed through the hands of mortgage holders, through bank transfers, by devious and tortuous ways, until the title rested in Horace Gower, -- who had promptly built the showy summer house on Cradle Bay to flaunt in his face, so old Poor Man's Rock
Fortunately Veronica who was propelled into a life of crime-fighting after her best friend Lilly was murdered is on hand to ensure that justice is served much to the annoyance of the Neptunians who find themselves frequently foiled in their devious plans. Geek Deal: Veronica Mars - The Complete Series for $61.49 | /Film
The Scire made her way by a devious route to Port Lago on the Italian-occupied island of Leros in the Aegean to rendezvous with the frogmen crews.
Moreover, corporations have powerful “think tanks” that work to influence public opinion in devious ways, such as creating the image of “unbiased research” by a panel of well-paid scientific charlatans – most insidiously used to discredit global warming for the past decade. Widespread Sustainable Consumerism is More Vital Than Taking Individual Actions
A hare is be given a short head start to blaze a trail, marking his devious way with shreds of paper, soon to be pursued by a shouting pack of harriers.
Of course, his definition of deviousness and unfaithfulness is rather different when it comes to men, most particularly to himself. The Black Swan by Mercedes Lackey
Ever since then, the word devious had a powerful memory association, which she now attached to Alan Daniels. Above Suspicion
I never know, but I was told that bromid of potassium, gained in devious ways from the dispensary, was the dope they used. The "Pen" - Long Days in a County Penitentiary
It ought not be surprising at all, then, that whistleblowers get persecuted using all the insidious, ingenious, devious, and oppressive means dominators in our society can apply.
To paraphrase his satyrical entry at the Reagan Wing, Doug alleges that Mike! faked or made up this DUI or at least preemptively announced it as a devious ploy to gain sympathy from the electorate. Sound Politics: Last Call
One of them proposes a devious plan. Ambassadors: From Ancient Greece to the Nation State
Those devious, thieving bastards were expecting Dan to pay 90,000 Rupees to be driven 500 kilometers.
But prison officers say a large number of claims come from devious cons in overcrowded cells. The Sun
She led him by devious ways to the meeting place.
It would also, in a case like the present one, be to reward conduct which at best was devious and at worst deceitful.
His comment about feeling "objectified" started the wheels turning in this devious head of mine. Archive 2009-07-01
And to stop dreaming up devious ways of subverting the public will. The Sun
The coach followed a rather devious course to its destination.
Instead of her being devious, duplicitous, and incompetent, perhaps she could answer the question.
The intimidating look from Feror grew fiercer as he smirked with a devious smile.
After all, they keep thinking of new and devious ways to make us part with our hard-earned cash. The Sun
It never occurred to that subtle, devious mind that an outward display of frankness might be more mendacious than any evasion. THE THORN BIRDS
His most famous souse, Sir John Falstaff, is a bloated, devious, clown.
used devious means to achieve success
The possibilities are limited only by the deviousness of your mind and the viciousness of your competitive drive.
His policy was at times devious but also essentially sincere in that avoidance of war was his real aim. The Collins History of the World in the 20th Century
They can be cunning and devious, but overall goblins are not very intelligent creatures.
In the past, in the absence of legal recourse, chefs sometimes took a devious approach. Times, Sunday Times
Sometimes he slunk along in devious loop-like curves, and again he leaped into the air and stood stock-still. Janey Canuck in the West
Just before this the Battalion, which had been lent to the 155th Brigade, began its devious march across the exposed Kurd Valley, taking advantage of the winding wadies till it reached the el Sireh ridge and lay up in a nullah running up into Kurd The Fifth Battalion Highland Light Infantry in the War 1914-1918
Newman was devious, prepared to say one thing in print and another in private.
He was a short, fat, squint-eyed, florid-faced, devious drone whose profession was administering linctus to racehorses: the kind of disaster only the Greens could rely on. Two For The Lions
Factory workers are depicted as work-shy and devious, company directors as unscrupulous.
If the free domain email pawl phoronid is deviously legendary for unlikely ileitis, mantel of protozoan are in gleicheniaceae. cropper is poroporo dumps merchant economics and says they chanting mater of thermometer from corporate and immotile botulinum ventose. Rational Review
The "commanderguy" would have spend the rest of his term defending Azmodeaus, - I mean Cheney, Gonzales, the Iraq war, the failures in the Afghanistan war, and all the filth that would be unearthed in the impeachment proceedings would force the GOP to go down with a doomed ship ship, or join the rest of the American population in demanding a change of course, and accountability from the most corrupt, devious, and catastophically incompetent government in the history of America. After The Veto -- What's Next For Dems On Iraq?
Factory workers are depicted as work-shy and devious, company directors as unscrupulous.
Soon he's set into motion a series of devious plans to bump the orphans off and claim their fortune.
Music internet pirates, Craig reminds us, are devious little monkeys.
Another devious method of disguise is the principle of neglect: whereas some are painted a bright colour, many others are simply left au naturel, ensuring that they blend in well with the pavement to deceive even the most alert motorist. Free riding the roads of Mexico
The result is a game that rewards fast thinking and devious tactics. Times, Sunday Times
As awareness of the trick has grown, the conmen have been using increasingly devious tactics to stay one step ahead of the banks and the police. Times, Sunday Times
It's a welcome change to see Hugh Grant play the role of a devious weasel instead of the awkward, bumbling, confused nice guy in his previous films.
Devious Boy finished second, with Fairly Ransom's stablemate, Sweet Return, a nose back in third.
The motor industry and opposition parties have described the 12% increase in motor tax as a devious measure which unfairly penalises drivers.
They are very cunning and very devious.
`You, Jeremy, are a conniving, cunning, devious, good-for-nothing so-and-so. THE GWEN JOHN SCULPTURE
If you really want to be devious, you could spend the money on a particle accelerator.
On the actualist approach, Putin is devious iff his first compresence class overlaps deviousness. Tropes
You have to be a bit devious if you're going to succeed in business.
They can explain to him how devious and well resourced these people are. Times, Sunday Times
While his supporters would characterize him as "astute" and his critics as "devious," few could reasonably disagree that Fowler was the main mover in the APA for the fifteen years leading up to the torture debacle. Bryant Welch: Torture, Psychology, and Daniel Inouye: The True Story Behind Psychology's Role in Torture
These rules may seem stringent but lightning is a tricky, devious phenomenon.
a scenic but devious route
It said the councillor was not seeking to mislead other members or act in a devious manner.
It could come from anywhere - from the devious boss down to the sarky secretary in accounts - and at any time, but the likelihood is that if you had paid closer attention you might have been given some warning of what was coming.
Never before has a devious little plan backfired so badly.
Below this major premise, a lot of people arrange ward in house place most inside more devious perhaps room, this is worth deliberate really.
Unless, that is, you have some other devious plan in mind. Times, Sunday Times
It seemed quite filled with large bright clouds, resembling immense banks of snow, piled on each other in massy numbers, of the purest white; wreathing their ample folds in various forms and devious convolutions, and mingling in one vast embrace their shadowy substance. Life in the Rocky Mountains
If the gay gene is in the mitochondria, then a conspiracy theory springs to the devious minds of Hurst and Haig.
MOUTH FULL OF BULLETS, a innovative ezine from the devious mind of B.J. Bourg, is live with their Fall issue, and my flash piece THE September 2006
Sometimes it is necessary to adopt devious tactics to expose bullies and cheats.
When the archforger Hans van Meegeren undertook to hoodwink the experts by painting what they accepted as a theretofore unknown Vermeer, his motives were more devious than those of the ordinary counterfeiter.
Someone who wanted to be especially devious could encipher a banal plaintext with the actually significant information embedded in the structure of the key. A Quick Fringe Cipher Follow-Up
Referring to what he called the "psychodynamics" of groups falling into a "self-reverential mindset", he said M16's response to the absence of evidence of banned weapons was "simply to turn up the volume control to say, 'That just proves how devious Saddam Hussein is and how incompetent the inspectors are.' The Guardian World News
They show some admiration for the devious things that they perceive women to be doing but, on the other hand, they decry that same duplicitousness.
Cunning and devious, his story is not only poignant; it also makes for great entertainment!
She led him by devious ways to the meeting place.
Englishmen and matrons, and thrill societies with their winsome ingenuousness; and who sometimes when unguarded meet an artful serenader, that is a cloaked bandit, and is provoked by their performances, and knows anthropologically the nature behind the devious show; a sciential rascal; as little to be excluded from our modern circles as Eve's own old deuce from Eden's garden whereupon, opportunity inviting, both the fool and the cunning, the pure donkey princess of insular eulogy, and the sham one, are in a perilous pass. Complete Project Gutenberg Works of George Meredith
This from a man who has shown himself to be devious, slippery, back-stabbing and unconcerned with such things as market research. The Apprentice won by non-stop ideas factory Tom Pellerau
To fulfil this ambition he was prepared to go to any lengths, nomatterhow underhand or devious they might be.
The game's arcade cabinet featured a trackball that could be pawed to control a marble through a number of devious mazes and obstacles.
This QuestioningEverything dung beetle is typical of the devious and petty nature of the GOP and their imbecilic supporters. Think Progress » Former Bush officials rip Tea Parties: They’re ‘outrageous,’ based on ‘fear and hatred,’ bad for GOP.
Through mechanical, bound movement she playfully encourages our perhaps devious flirtatious tendencies.
Instead, they indulged in their usual hole-and-corner and devious manoeuvres.
The devious, dishonest, disreputable old cadger that he is. The Friday Cyril: Wednesday's Rochdale Obbie Postbag
Even unscrupulous pragmatists might want to let their pragmatism rein in their deviousness: even today, computer-searchable archived text seems fundamentally not to be the best medium for winning influence by, um, cageyness. Tax Freedom Redux
But Vendhya is a strange land, mayhap too devious for a simple northlander like me. Conan The Victorious
YOU might know that Cancer is sensitive and artistic - but what about grumpy and devious? The Sun
The big man was a lot more devious than his size or his bluffness suggested. Cities In Flight
I'm bloody tired of having to accept weak, devious, self-pitying parasites who, in the end, do not want to help themselves and simply want a free ride.
I hated this room, the atmosphere of backstabbing intrigue and devious plots and politics that hung overhead like a forthcoming tempest.
Thomas Jefferson was a tough, devious politician who viewed the states as supreme.
Polluters use the term freely, hinting about a dark cabal of devious greens plying the fear trade for personal gain.
Yet here, as many another time in these devious manoeuvres, that fearful dilemma interposed -- inseparable in its many forms from all collective action whether in cabinet or party; so fit to test to the very uttermost all the moral fortitude, all the wisdom of a minister, his sense of proportion, his strength of will, his prudent pliancy of judgment, his power of balance, his sure perception of the ruling fact. The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. 1 (of 3) 1809-1859
A more devious theory is that the whole red-mercury affair is simply a fantasy dreamt up to make Mr Rutskoi look foolish.
Better the paternalism of Ayub than the devious wiles of the politicians.
Santa was quite kind to her this year, but it is obvious that he's pretty upset with the direction-challenged king of a small Achaean island because he's inflicted a devious kind of torture on me. Archive 2009-12-01
Never before has a devious little plan backfired so badly.
DeviousMrBlonde lovely stuff. the planet of the apes one with the paper aeroplane is fantastic. blog comments powered by Disqus Cool Stuff: Brandon Schaefer’s Movie Posters | /Film
Soon he's set into motion a series of devious plans to bump the orphans off and claim their fortune.
They had somehow managed to re-elect the most devious, blinkered and reckless leader ever put before them.
I've said to Ryan, we'll do a tag team thing," Deeley said deviously. Who Made It Into So You Think You Can Dance's Top 10?
But if the migrants bike from a poor country to our rich one, they are demonstrating not British gumption but foreign deviousness.
Literally, one night of love - and only because, in the true Larner tradition, she was so unlovable that she appealed to his devious vanity. PASSION IN THE PEAK
YP may have a great service to offer however their approch is about as devious as it gets. Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Directory Listing Checks are the Worst Non-Internet Scam
He is a vain, devious showman accused of bribery, tax evasion, fraud and mafia connections.
When we each get up to our particular bit of crookery and deviousness we don't say, ‘I'm stealing or cheating’ we say ‘I'm beating the system.’
Both served up a lovely, lurid brew of greed, murder and deviously twisted or mistaken identities.
Cunning plans, devious stratagems, state-of-the-art conventional forces, and legal and moral proscriptions, can all be helpful.
Jolly and devious, she is an appealingly slippery figure.
It can only be the devious and underhand tactic of incorporating it in 90% of the world's web browsers.
a devious character
Instead, it looks devious and untrustworthy. The Sun
She never knew that the harper was her father returning by devious roads from one of the many festivals at which he played in summer-time, and having frequent rests by the way, owing to the good ale he had drunk. Gone to Earth
His devious nature was shown in half-lies and small dishonesties.
The judge called her'a very devious and dishonest young woman '. The Sun
It said the councillor was not seeking to mislead other members or act in a devious manner.
For bridge, all you need is a playing partner, a pair of opponents, a set of cards - and a capacity for wicked, devious cunning.
They are little better than the smarmy, devious, dishonest and selfish Europeans.
Now, Miss Minerva, as her name connoted, was a wise woman; and she had reached an unerring conclusion by two different and devious routes, to wit, intuition and logic, the same being the high road and low road of reason -- high or low in either case as you may prefer. By Advice of Counsel
Dark secrets from the past resurface when 10 strangers are summoned to a remote island hideaway, where their host has something nasty and devious in store. The Sun
Amidst the blackout chaos, low attendance and some devious local politicking working against them, organizers of the Wilderbeat mod/garage / psych festival definitely learned about bad luck the hard way.
One of them proposes a devious plan. Ambassadors: From Ancient Greece to the Nation State
There is apt humor here and no less apt insight into the deviousness of the psyche.
A hare is be given a short head start to blaze a trail, marking his devious way with shreds of paper, soon to be pursued by a shouting pack of harriers.
A devious and impoverished loser smoothly ingratiates himself into the closed and sophisticated world of a family whose lifestyle he passionately covets.
But we're not sure of the circumstances, whether they were - whether they were killed in the firefight or whether they were gunned down in some other kind of more devious ambush.
An action calculated to frustrate an opponent or gain an advantage indirectly or deviously; a maneuver.
At length, after various twistings and turnings in that deep and devious lane; after scaring one or two farmers, and riding over a brood or two of ducks; dipping into the verdant valley of West End, and ascending another hill, Turpin burst upon the gorsy, sandy, and beautiful heath of Rookwood
The coach followed a rather devious course to its destination.
He's a devious, secret person and I don't trust him.
For bridge, all you need is a playing partner, a pair of opponents, a set of cards - and a capacity for wicked, devious cunning.
It just means that it's necessary to divorce what was said from the devious and somewhat desperate politician who was saying it.
Stood up again by that devious little hymenoptera, Avery! Archive 2006-12-01
This practice had a curiously devious origin, in a supposed antagonism between epilepsy and schizophrenia.
Even more devious were so-called slanted newscasts, slipped in so close to the enemy signal as to be confused with the genuine program but containing the slightest change in tone or emphasis, the ironic pause or well-placed snicker. A Covert Affair
Or thought I had some devious plan to cheat him which he could not fathom. Tommy Cooper: Always Leave Them Laughing
It's a devious and underhand tactic. Times, Sunday Times
As Nick, Louis Lovett finds the perfect balance between feigned and real innocence, and between decency and the first signs of careerist deviousness.
We can't gauge how steady his nerve is, but nor do we know just how devious his plan might be. Times, Sunday Times
I never knew, but I was told that bromide of potassium, gained in devious ways from the dispensary, was the dope they used. The Pen

How To Use Devious In A Sentence

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