wily beguily

English

Etymology

Rhyming alteration of wily + beguile.

Noun

wily beguily (plural wily beguilies)

  1. (obsolete) Someone who is caught by their own trickery; a person that becomes trapped by their own craftiness.
  2. (obsolete) A cunning trick, something wily, trickery.
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, Essays, III.8:
      I often hazard upon certaine outslips of my minde for which I distrust my selfe; and certaine verball wilie-beguilies [translating finesses], whereat I shake mine eares; but I let them runne at hab or nab […].
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