tricky
/ˈtrɪki
/adjective (trickier, trickiest)
1(Of a task, problem, etc.) requiring care and skill because difficult or awkward: applying eyeliner can be a tricky business the radio is tricky to operate...
- Completing one set of objectives or the other isn't too hard, but completing them both is a tricky task.
- The horribly tricky task for the judges in such situations is to avoid the court being used as a weapon in a revenge mission.
- He has the tricky task of deciding where the side will play in the future.
Synonyms
difficult, awkward, problematic, delicate, ticklish, sensitive, touchy, risky, uncertain, precarious, touch-and-go;
thorny, knotty, involved, complex, complicated, convoluted;
vexed;
embarrassing
informal sticky, dicey, hairy
North American informal gnarly
2Deceitful or crafty: I wouldn’t trust her—she’s tricky...
- The early minutes of the second half saw more great skills from Thompson and tricky runs from Sovago.
- Ryan Giggs is not as tricky but he has great pace, skill and overall quality.
- The tricky winger immediately started to cause Portadown problems and clearly lifted the Newry attack.
Synonyms
cunning, crafty, wily, artful, guileful, devious, scheming, sly, slippery, slick, deceitful, deceptive, duplicitous, dishonest, disingenuous, Machiavellian;
North American snide
informal foxy, shifty
British informal fly, dodgy
South African informal slim
Australian/New Zealand informal shonky
rare subtle, carny
Derivatives
trickily
- Customs officers, for example, I find trickily unpredictable.
- With these techniques Johnson effectively but trickily conveys his ironic and multivocal vision and makes his narrator successfully write himself into the text.
- The concerto demands athletic power from the soloist as he negotiates trickily angular and motoric passages, particularly in the last movement.
trickiness
- Smith's technique makes the structural trickiness of the script work - in the hands of a lesser performer, Shakespeare's Will would not be as effective a drama.
- One of the many marvelous things about American Splendor is that the extraordinary trickiness of the film's structure is truly the only way to tell its story.
- The conspiracy theorists, however, interpret it as a bit of trickiness.