subs. (old).—A seemingly simple but really clever and designing fellow (B. E. and GROSE).
c. 1680. R. NORTH, The Lives of the Norths, 169. [Lord Guildford was nicknamed] SLYBOOTS.
1729. BIGNON, The Adventures of Abdalla, 32. The frog call’d … several times, but in vain … though the SLY-BOOTS heard well enough all the while.
