Machiavellian — index artful Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 … Law dictionary
machiavellian — adjective arch, artful, base, cagey, calculating, canny, cheating, clever, collusive, collusory, conniving, conscienceless, contriving, corrupt, covinous, crafty, crooked, cunning, deceitful, deceiving, deceptive, delusive, designing, devious,… … Law dictionary
Machiavellian — (adj.) cunning, deceitful, unscrupulous, 1570s, from Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 1527), Florentine statesman and author of Del Principe, a work advising rulers to place advantage above morality. A word of abuse in English well before his works were … Etymology dictionary
Machiavellian — a noun and adjective denoting a politically devious schemer, is spelt with a capital initial letter and two ls … Modern English usage
Machiavellian — [adj] scheming artful, astute, calculating, conniving, contriving, crafty, cunning, deceitful, devious, expedient, opportunist, plotting, shrewd, sly, underhanded, unscrupulous, wily; concepts 401,545 … New thesaurus
Machiavellian — [mak΄ē ə vel′ē ən, mäk΄ē ə vel′ē ən; mak΄ē əvel′yən] adj. 1. of Machiavelli 2. of, like, or characterized by the political principles and methods of expediency, craftiness, and duplicity set forth in Machiavelli s book, The Prince; crafty,… … English World dictionary
Machiavellian — [[t]mæ̱kiəve̱liən[/t]] ADJ GRADED: usu ADJ n (disapproval) If you describe someone as Machiavellian, you are critical of them because they often make clever and secret plans to achieve their aims and are not honest with people. ...Machiavellian… … English dictionary
Machiavellian — 1. adjective /ˌmɒk.i.əˈvɛl.i.ən,ˌmæk.jəˈvɛl.i.ən,ˌmɑk.i.əˈvɛl.i.ən,ˌmæk.jəˈvɛl.i.ən/ a) Attempting to achieve their goals by cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous methods. is the Machiavellian antagonist in William Shakespeares play, . b) Related… … Wiktionary
Machiavellian — Machiavelian Mach i*a*vel ian, Machiavellian Mach i*a*vel lian, a. [From Machiavel (also called Machiavelli), an Italian writer, secretary and historiographer to the republic of Florence.] Of or pertaining to Machiavelli, or to his supposed… … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
Machiavellian — Machiavelian Mach i*a*vel ian, Machiavellian Mach i*a*vel lian, n. One who adopts the principles of Machiavelli; a cunning and unprincipled politician. [1913 Webster] … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English