crafty
adj.adj. clever at getting what you want, often by tricking people or being dishonest. It describes someone who is good at keeping secrets to reach a goal.
adj. characterised by skill in deception or underhandedness to achieve an objective. Often implies a level of cleverness that is used for selfish or slightly dishonest purposes.
The crafty fox waited for the farmer to leave.
He came up with a crafty plan to get the promotion without his coworkers noticing.
While his colleagues relied on brute force to close deals, he employed a crafty negotiation style that often left the other party wondering how they had conceded so much.
From Middle English crafty, crefty, craftiȝ, from Old English cræftiġ (“ingenious; skilful; crafty; cunning; virtuous; powerful”), from Proto-West Germanic kraftag, kraftīg, kraftug, from Proto-Germanic kraftugaz (“powerful”), equivalent to craft + -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian kräftich, krääftig, West Frisian krêftich, Dutch krachtig, German Low German krachtig, German kräftig.
Typically used to describe people or their strategies; can be used predicatively after linking verbs like 'be' or 'seem'.