Green’s Dictionary of Slang

sly adj.

[SE sly, secretive, underhand]

1. (orig. Aus.) illicit, illegal.

[UK]G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 31: Sly – contraband.
[UK]Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
[US]J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 71: They had had no training in picking pockets or ‘sly work’ of any particular sort.
[UK]W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act I: Do you think they march off by the dozen for a sly swallow?
[Aus]P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 165: I had a couple more sly brandies.

2. (US teen) excellent.

H. Boyle Associated Press 30 June n.p.: A teenager has to keep up on his slang. At the moment something that used to be known as the cat’s whiskers is now called ‘sly,’ ‘really neat,’ ‘the real George,’ or ‘deadly boo’ [W&F].

In compounds

slyboots (n.) (also sly-cap)

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

[UK]Otway Soldier’s Fortune IV i: Ah, villain! ah, sly-cap! have I caught you?
[UK]B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Sly-boots, a seeming Silly, but subtil Fellow.
[UK]Cibber Love Makes a Man II i: Look, look — look, o’ Sly-boots.
[UK]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.
[UK]View of London & Westminster (2nd part) 12: [S]he was under the care of Mr Sly-boots, a Saint.
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].
[UK]Laugh and Be Fat 18: The cunning old Sly-Boots, the better to effect his Ends, puts on his Spectacles.
[UK](con. 1680) R. North Lives of the Norths (1890) I 368: The worst the author could contrive was to call him Slyboots.
[UK]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!
[UK]O. Goldsmith Retaliation 8: If he had any faults, he has left us in doubt [...] That sly-boots was cursedly cunning to hide ’em.
[UK]‘Grubstreticus’ Parody on the Rosciad 35: But could old slyboots rise to view / Your heads, youre apish tricks, and you.
[Ind]Hicky’s Bengal Gaz. 4-11 Aug. n.p.: [verses signed] Young Sly-Boots.
[Ire]J. O’Keeffe Wild Oats (1792) 70: And I hope you will next introduce a Grandson to me, young Sly Boots.
[UK]G. Colman Yngr John Bull III i: john: What horse will you have saddled, sir? shuff: Slyboots.
[Ire]Spirit of Irish Wit 52: ‘Oh! madam’ answered Old Slyboots, ‘how is it possible [etc]’.
[US]J.K. Paulding Bucktails (1847) II i: The sly boots laughed heartily.
[UK]W. Combe Doctor Syntax, Wife (1868) 267/2: Full ten years since the deed was done, / When Parson Slyboots made you one.
[US]Wilmington & Delaware Advertiser 31 May 1/3: Mrs Slyboots had the impudence this morning to try and coax the cook away.
[UK] ‘New Song of the Election’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 99: And Sly Boots attends to collect all their senses.
[Ind]Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin I 257: ‘Come, come, that won’t do, Mr Slyboots [...] I know all about it; ha! ha! ha!’.
[UK]Thackeray Vanity Fair III 218: Look at that infernal sly boots of a Tapeworm.
[Aus]Bell’s Life in Sydney 11 Sept. 1/5: Around the table we noticed Messrs Slaughter, Stifler, Bolter, Bailemup, Slyboots, Litefinger, besides many others,.
[UK]Dickens Bleak House (1991) 451: I wrote a line to my dear boy [...] advising him not to call before: Boguey being a Slyboots.
[UK]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.
[UK]Thackeray Adventures of Philip (1899) 385: Now this little Slyboots had a thousand artful little ways.
[UK]J. Hatton Cruel London II 36: One of ’em kept a-calling master Mr. Slyboots.
[US]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.
[Aus]Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 76: Sly Boots, one pretending simplicity.
Buffalo Eve. News (NY) 22 July 3/6: Slyboots — that was Master Crow’s name — soon learned a great many tricks.
[UK]A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 246: I shall give you your wedding dress and Madame herself shall design it — you little slyboots!
[UK]Illus. London News 12 May 4/3: The Duke of Portland’s Miss Slyboots was supposed to be a good thing.
[Ire]Joyce Ulysses 520: You’re such a slyboots, old cocky. I could kiss you.
[US]Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) Sun. Mag. 6 Mar. 3/4: Slyboots, the common red fox, is age-old in slyness and cunning.
[NZ]D. Davin Gorse Blooms Pale 115: Old Slyboots, Norah always called him.
[US]Miami News (FL) 25 May 18/1: A former senator, Claude pepper, old slyboots himself, even got into the act.
[Aus]B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 71: Lew Silver you old sly boots.
[Ire]P. Boyle All Looks Yellow to the Jaundiced Eye 35: Give over, Sly-boots.
Green Bay Press (WI) 10 May 36/2: A ‘slyboots’ may be any crafty or cunning person, or animal, for that matter.
[US]R.M. Brown Southern Discomfort (1983) 28: That old reverend is a slyboots.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 10 Sept. 22: Versailles is populated by thick aristos [...] and their sly-boot servants.
[US]T. Piccirilli Last Whisper in the Dark 24: ‘Doesn’t being a famous thief interfere with the need to be a slyboots?’.
sly-grog (n.)

see separate entry.

sly kick (n.)

(Aus.) a savings account.

[Aus]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.

In phrases

sly-drain-man (n.)

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

[UK]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’.
sly, slick and wicked (n.)

(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.

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