shifty

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Suspicious or untrustworthy in behavior or appearance

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Nghi ngờ hoặc không đáng tin cậy trong hành vi hoặc vẻ ngoài

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

He seemed shifty when I asked him about the missing money

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “shifty” mean?

Suspicious or untrustworthy in behavior or appearance

Is “shifty” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.