variants
or skullduggery
as in deception
the use of clever underhanded actions to achieve an end
the company's apparently healthy bottom line was merely an illusion, the result of years of accounting skulduggery
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Recent Examples of skulduggery
In a separate incident of apparent skulduggery in 2007, Belichick was fined a league maximum of $500,000.
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Bill Pennington, New York Times, 11 Jan. 2024
And the latest corporate skulduggery requires Murderbot to access its creativity in a whole new way.
—Charlie Jane Anders, Washington Post, 19 Dec. 2023
Yevgeny Prigozhin for years had denied any connection to the Wagner mercenary group and operated discreetly on the margins of Russian power, trading in political skulduggery, cafeteria meals and lethal force.
—Paul Sonne, BostonGlobe.com, 26 Aug. 2023
In his pre-suspended life, Garcia worked for an anti-Communist, nationalist, Catholic dictatorship, and now must come to terms with a democratic nation — if one in which political skulduggery is nevertheless rife — even as certain elements try to bring him down.
—Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 15 June 2023
See all Example Sentences for skulduggery 
Bill Pennington, New York Times, 11 Jan. 2024
And the latest corporate skulduggery requires Murderbot to access its creativity in a whole new way.
—Charlie Jane Anders, Washington Post, 19 Dec. 2023
Yevgeny Prigozhin for years had denied any connection to the Wagner mercenary group and operated discreetly on the margins of Russian power, trading in political skulduggery, cafeteria meals and lethal force.
—Paul Sonne, BostonGlobe.com, 26 Aug. 2023
In his pre-suspended life, Garcia worked for an anti-Communist, nationalist, Catholic dictatorship, and now must come to terms with a democratic nation — if one in which political skulduggery is nevertheless rife — even as certain elements try to bring him down.
—Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 15 June 2023
See all Example Sentences for skulduggery
Recent Examples of Synonyms for skulduggery
Noun
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If the princess world is all sort of deception, this is no artifice at all.Simon Thompson, Forbes, 5 Dec. 2024
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So, in the spirit of humoring that little Gremlin, here’s a rundown of some of Pattinson’s most memorable deceptions and dubious claims.Charisma Madarang, Rolling Stone, 4 Dec. 2024
Noun
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The eternal fight for liberty — slaves into gladiators, gladiators into free men — calls for courage and purpose beyond Lucius’s nightmarish expectations, uncovering the treachery and chicanery of Roman politics.Armond White, National Review, 6 Dec. 2024
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After eight episodes of legal and emotional chicanery, a jury finds Rusty Sabich not guilty of murdering his lover, Carolyn Polhemus.Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 25 July 2024
Noun
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This content, much of it clearly generated by AI rather than intended to deceive—a medium of crude self-expression, not sophisticated subterfuge—may have been the technology’s biggest impact on the 2024 presidential election.Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 10 Dec. 2024
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But as the film goes on, those idiosyncrasies reveal themselves to be more like a blend of subterfuge and pleasure, another way for Macrinus to hide his intentions behind a veil.Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 22 Nov. 2024
Noun
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Elegant and the users are never cognizant of the under-the-hood trickery.Lance Eliot, Forbes, 8 Dec. 2024
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Defenses continue to watch film on Darnold, but O'Connell could draw up some trickery by adding Jones to the mix.Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 28 Nov. 2024
Noun
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The political machinations on the right and left appear little more than gamesmanship.Joseph Ataman, CNN, 5 Dec. 2024
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Some might suggest that peddling ideas of heroic viticulture is akin to marketing gamesmanship, that the consumer is forced to foot the bill for wines produced too far from the tenets of entrepreneurship and economies of scale.Paul Caputo, Forbes, 30 Nov. 2024
Noun
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Getting out doesn’t just require thumb-shredding dexterity, wit, and guile but also — fittingly for its premise — patience.Lewis Gordon, Vulture, 5 Dec. 2024
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Over time, guile took on the connotation of deceitful cunning in English, emerging in Middle English around the 12th century.Erik Kain, Forbes, 1 Dec. 2024
Noun
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Congressional legerdemain can’t wave away that reality.Howard Gleckman, Forbes, 4 Dec. 2024
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Both activities depended on legerdemain and made elaborate use of optical illusions.Jonathon Keats, Forbes, 23 Sep. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Skulduggery.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/skulduggery. Accessed 24 Dec. 2024.
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