Machiavellicadj.

1645 E. Gilbert Prelatical Cavalier Catechized 26 The have made it by their Sophisticall and Machiavilick insinuations, as a prick in your side, or thorn in your foot, to hurt and mischief you.

1823 tr. E.-A.-D. de Las Cases Memorial de Sainte Hélène III. vi. 37 The mediator and the adversaries were equally our enemies... All were merely affixing the seal to their Machiavellic system.

1836 H. N. Coleridge in S. T. Coleridge Lit. Remains I. 167 [A moral grandeur in the latter period, with which the low intrigues,] Machiavellic [1819 Macchiavelian] [maxims, and selfish and servile ambition of the former, stand in painful contrast].

1850 Æ. McD. Dawson tr. J. M. de Maistre Pope iii. ii. 239 This maxim, in the sense attributed to it by the poet, presents a Machiavelic and revolting aspect.

1860 All Year Round 21 Apr. 36 A profound and Machiavellic politician.

1879 F. W. Farrar Life & Work St. Paul I. vii. xxv. 484 The astute and machiavellic policy of Rome.

1955 H. Butterfield Man on his Past 222 The most Machiavellic of princes, the author of the anti-Machiavel, Frederic II.

1996 Re: 95.5 in alt.talk.royalty (Usenet newsgroup) 7 Feb. When the end of this misbegotten war arrived on 11 November 1918, it was a scramble to see which nation got rid of their machiavellic monarch first.