Definition of "shifty" in English

Adjective

1. Subject to frequent changes in direction.

2. Moving from one object to another; not looking directly and steadily at the person with whom one is speaking.

3. Having the appearance of being dishonest, criminal, or unreliable.

   • He was a shifty character in a seedy bar, and I checked my wallet was still there after talking to him.

4. Resourceful; full of, or ready with, shifts or expedients.

5. ↑ Thomas Wright, Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English, London: Henry G. Bohn, Volume 2, p. 848: “Cunning; artful” (Craven [Yorkshire]).