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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But because pressured waterfowl aren’t easy to fool, hunters have been trying to perfect the art of decoy deception to swing the odds in their favor.Alice Jones Webb, Outdoor Life, 14 Nov. 2024
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On Thursday, Prime Video debuted the first trailer for its series adaptation of the 1999 teen movie, all eight episodes premiering Nov. 21 on the streamer, bringing a familiar tale of deception to a new locale with all new characters.Glenn Garner, Deadline, 24 Oct. 2024
Noun
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Specifically, expect to see a new look at the latest DLC for Alan Wake 2, The Lake House, and an in-depth look at the latest chicanery coming out of Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.Ash Parrish, The Verge, 17 Oct. 2024
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OpenAI did not inflict its current legal headache on itself out of cunning chicanery, but out of a desire to satisfy a number of different early stakeholders, many of them true believers.Kelsey Piper, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018
Noun
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Putin’s ties to social media What Putin lacks as a military leader, the former KGB secret agent makes up for in subterfuge.Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 25 Oct. 2024
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When Lorraine’s cocoon of wealth begins to crack after Dot’s subterfuge, Wayne’s injuries, Roy’s threats, and Danish’s disappearance, Leigh centers the Queen of Debt’s humanizing concern.Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 17 Jan. 2024
Noun
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The documentary never suitably addresses any of this, nor Goode’s trickery.Jen Chaney, Vulture, 8 Sep. 2024
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While sudden incidents wrest the plot in new directions, the film is driven less by perverse narrative trickery than by the arbitrary cruelty of fate or the volatility of human nature.Guy Lodge, Variety, 26 Sep. 2024
Noun
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After the game, Roberts indicated there was no gamesmanship intended in that answer.Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times, 18 Oct. 2024
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The juxtaposition of the two worlds, one of which had been grazing horses in this area of the steppe for millennia, the other of which had, in a moment of daring and gamesmanship, started launching people into the cosmos with rockets meant to annihilate humanity, filled McConnell with wonder.Keith Gessen, The New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2024
Noun
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But those dying or returning home as amputees are often from a younger generation who value dexterity and guile perhaps more than brute persistence.Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, 8 Aug. 2024
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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 June 2024
Noun
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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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Any such legislative legerdemain would be an unwarranted assault to circumvent the caps.State Senator Stephen Harding, Hartford Courant, 26 Feb. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Skulduggery.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/skulduggery. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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