cagey
/ˈkeɪdʒi
/(also cagy)
adjective (cagier, cagiest) informal
Reluctant to give information owing to caution or suspicion: a spokesman was cagey about the arrangements his company had struck...
- The bird sellers are extremely cagey about sharing information, especially with press persons.
- He is intent on making people look good but not necessarily beautiful in his work and achieves this by capturing secretive, edgy or cagey subjects.
- The staff was cagy, but confirmed my suspicion with slight, knowing expressions and small tight smiles of sympathy.
Synonyms
secretive, guarded, non-committal, tight-lipped, reticent, cautious, circumspect, chary, wary, careful, evasive, elusive, equivocal;
discreet
informal playing one's cards close to one's chest
Derivatives
cagily
/ adverb ...- His ‘anxiety almost - panic’ escalates when she cagily adds that she has ‘given some thought to donating [her farm] as a wildlife preserve.’
- In between pleas of privacy, ignorance, and harassment, he still answers questions, cagily and painfully; he clearly wants to be left alone, but also wants to make sense of things.
- Staying put in my state of mind is even less of an option than going out, so we're cagily descending the threadbare stairs, the carpet so worn that it's as hazardous as the side of a glacier.
caginess
/ (also cageyness) noun ...- But if there were, why all this caginess and obfuscation?
- Whether he will ever return to Russia permanently is another question altogether, and he answers it with the caginess he displays when discussing retirement.
- Isn't the very caginess of this means of attack a bit odd?
Origin
Early 20th century (originally US): of unknown origin.