Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) a cunning person.

1953

Baker Aus. Speaks.

(N.Z.) a derog. term for a man.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

a cunning, deceptive person, usu. with overtones of affection rather than an expression of outright disapproval; also attrib.

1681		Otway Soldier’s Fortune IV i: Ah, villain! ah, sly-cap! have I caught you?
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Sly-boots, a seeming Silly, but subtil Fellow.
1701		Cibber Love Makes a Man II i: Look, look — look, o’ Sly-boots.
1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 110: A high-Church Whore, that would rather chuse to be corrected with the Scourge of Reformation, than contaminate her Honour with old Justice Sly-Boots.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1729		J. Addison Abdalla 32: The frog call’d... several times, but in vain... though the sly-boots heard well enough all the while [F&H].
1733		Laugh and Be Fat 18: The cunning old Sly-Boots, the better to effect his Ends, puts on his Spectacles.
1742–4		(con. 1680) R. North Lives of the Norths (1890) I 368: The worst the author could contrive was to call him Slyboots.
1751		W. Kenrick Falstaff’s Wedding (1766) II vii: Then to see how demurely Sir Slyboots angled for me, as if I had been a gudgeon!
1774		O. Goldsmith Retaliation 8: If he had any faults, he has left us in doubt [...] That sly-boots was cursedly cunning to hide ’em.
1780		‘Grubstreticus’ Parody on the Rosciad 35: But could old slyboots rise to view / Your heads, youre apish tricks, and you.
1781		Hicky’s Bengal Gaz. 4-11 Aug. n.p.: [verses signed] Young Sly-Boots.
1791		J. O’Keeffe Wild Oats (1792) 70: And I hope you will next introduce a Grandson to me, young Sly Boots.
1806		G. Colman Yngr John Bull III i: john: What horse will you have saddled, sir? shuff: Slyboots.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 52: ‘Oh! madam’ answered Old Slyboots, ‘how is it possible [etc]’.
c.1815		J.K. Paulding Bucktails (1847) II i: The sly boots laughed heartily.
1821		W. Combe Doctor Syntax, Wife (1868) 267/2: Full ten years since the deed was done, / When Parson Slyboots made you one.
1827		Wilmington & Delaware Advertiser 31 May 1/3: Mrs Slyboots had the impudence this morning to try and coax the cook away.
c.1831		‘New Song of the Election’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 99: And Sly Boots attends to collect all their senses.
1843		Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin I 257: ‘Come, come, that won’t do, Mr Slyboots [...] I know all about it; ha! ha! ha!’.
1848		Thackeray Vanity Fair III 218: Look at that infernal sly boots of a Tapeworm.
1852		Bell’s Life in Sydney 11 Sept. 1/5: Around the table we noticed Messrs Slaughter, Stifler, Bolter, Bailemup, Slyboots, Litefinger, besides many others,.
1853		Dickens Bleak House (1991) 451: I wrote a line to my dear boy [...] advising him not to call before: Boguey being a Slyboots.
1859		G.A. Sala Twice Round the Clock 205: Captain Henchman, late of Roper’s horse, turned out to be Father Slyboots, high up in the order of Jesus.
1862		Thackeray Adventures of Philip (1899) 385: Now this little Slyboots had a thousand artful little ways.
1878		J. Hatton Cruel London II 36: One of ’em kept a-calling master Mr. Slyboots.
1881		Jrnl Times (Racine, WI) 20 Apr. 3/1: His name was Johnny Jones but the boys [...] all called him Johnny Slyboots because he was always into mischief, and was so sly about it that it wasn’t often that he got found our.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 76: Sly Boots, one pretending simplicity.
1896		Buffalo Eve. News (NY) 22 July 3/6: Slyboots — that was Master Crow’s name — soon learned a great many tricks.
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 246: I shall give you your wedding dress and Madame herself shall design it — you little slyboots!
1917		Illus. London News 12 May 4/3: The Duke of Portland’s Miss Slyboots was supposed to be a good thing.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 520: You’re such a slyboots, old cocky. I could kiss you.
1938		Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) Sun. Mag. 6 Mar. 3/4: Slyboots, the common red fox, is age-old in slyness and cunning.
1947		D. Davin Gorse Blooms Pale 115: Old Slyboots, Norah always called him.
1952		Miami News (FL) 25 May 18/1: A former senator, Claude pepper, old slyboots himself, even got into the act.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 71: Lew Silver you old sly boots.
1969		P. Boyle All Looks Yellow to the Jaundiced Eye 35: Give over, Sly-boots.
1973		Green Bay Press (WI) 10 May 36/2: A ‘slyboots’ may be any crafty or cunning person, or animal, for that matter.
1982		R.M. Brown Southern Discomfort (1983) 28: That old reverend is a slyboots.
1999		Indep. Rev. 10 Sept. 22: Versailles is populated by thick aristos [...] and their sly-boot servants.
2013		T. Piccirilli Last Whisper in the Dark 24: ‘Doesn’t being a famous thief interfere with the need to be a slyboots?’.

see separate entry.

(Aus.) a savings account.

1983

J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 112: Big Oscar wound up with the biggest sly kick he’d ever owned [...] going for three months in his local bank.

(mid-19C) one who drinks (heavily) in private and pretends to justify it as ‘doctor’s orders’.

1868

Sportsman 31 Oct. 2/1: Notes on News [...] [H]e should degenerate into a debased sot [...] or into that dreariest of debauchees a ‘sly-drain-man,’ or a ‘drinker in private for medical reasons’.

(US black) an individual who plans to be caught out in a small act of deceit, which exposé will facilitate plans for a larger confidence trick.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].