Forms: see WILY. [f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality or character of being wily; craftiness, cunning, guile.
c. 1450. trans. De Imitatione, I. vii. 8. Truste not in þin ovne konnyng, ner in þe wilynes of eny man livyng.
c. 1460. Metham, Wks. (1916), 133. A mowght þe qwyche ys smal off qwantyte with thynne lyppys sygnyffyith onmyghtynes, ferffulnes, and wylynes.
1556. Olde, Antichrist, 162 b. So (with certain foxlike wylynesse) they clooke the bloody meanyng.
1601. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw. (1603), 2. Neither let any man suppose that from wilines without force, nor force without iudgement, can preceed any proiect of worthy consideration.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 181. To defend them from all Assaults and Wiliness of the Devil.
1818. Mrs. Shelley, Frankenstein, xix. (1823), II. 126. I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom.
1878. Bayne, Purit. Rev., iii. 81. He had the wariness and wiliness of the cat.
