Read along with the three podcasts, or open the full dictionary entry for Shifty for the definition, Arabic meaning, synonyms and example sentences.
Narrator: Today's word is "Shifty" — adjective, pronounced /ˈʃɪfti/, with the stress on "shif".
Narrator: Shifty means seeming dishonest or not trustworthy.
Narrator: In plain English, shifty means suspicious-looking.
Narrator: It comes from shift, meaning a trick, plus -y.
Narrator: A common collocation is "shifty eyes", which describes eyes that avoid your gaze.
Narrator: It differs from "nervous", because shifty suggests hiding something.
Narrator: In a second sense, "look shifty" is a light, joking accusation among friends.
Narrator: Fiction, policing, everyday speech and film all rely on the word.
Narrator: So remember: shifty means suspicious.
Speaker A: Why is the dog looking at me like that?
Speaker B: He looks SHIFTY, he stole your sock! From shift, a trick.
Speaker A: Under the bed?
Speaker B: Probably.
Speaker A: Example sentences?
Speaker B: "A shifty-looking man by the car", suspicion. "He gave a shifty answer", evasion. "You look shifty, what did you do?", teasing.
Speaker A: Common mistakes?
Speaker B: Do not judge people as shifty by appearance alone; it can be unfair.
Speaker A: Close relatives?
Speaker B: Shady is its cousin, sly its twin, and furtive an alternative — yet shifty keeps its sneaky charm!
Speaker B: Let's use "shifty" in AI prompts — useful for fiction and fraud detection.
Speaker A: How for fiction?
Speaker B: Characters.
Prompt: Write a shifty market trader in three lines of dialogue.
Speaker A: And fraud?
Speaker B: Behaviour.
Prompt: List behaviour patterns that make an online seller look shifty.
Speaker A: Could it help games?
Speaker B: Yes, for NPCs.
Prompt: Design a shifty character who gives hints that may be lies.
Speaker A: One more?
Speaker B: Vocabulary.
Prompt: Compare shifty, shady and sly with examples.
Shifty — meaning in Arabic & definition More S courses GL Dictionary