insidious

== English == === Etymology === From Middle French insidieux, from Latin īnsidiōsus (“cunning, artful, deceitful”), from īnsidiae (“a lying in wait, an ambush, artifice, stratagem”) + -ōsus, from īnsideō (“to sit in or on”), from in (“in, on”) + sedeō (“to sit”). === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /ɪnˈsɪdi.əs/ Rhymes: -ɪdiəs === Adjective === insidious (comparative more insidious, superlative most insidious) Causing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner. Synonym: subtle Intending to entrap; alluring but harmful. 1948, D.V. Chitaley (editor or publisher), All India Reporter, volume 3, page 341: All these facts clearly appear to me now to establish that the sanctioned scheme was a part of a bigger and […] more insidious scheme which was to hoodwink the creditors and to firmly establish and consolidate the position […] 2005, Anita Desai, Voices in the City, page 189: This seemed to her the worst defilement into which this insidious city had cheated her and in her agitation, she nearly ran into the latrine, […] (nonstandard) Treacherous. Synonyms: perfidious, proditorious, traitorous; see also Thesaurus:treacherous ==== Derived terms ==== insidiously insidiousness uninsidious ==== Translations ==== === Further reading === William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “insidious”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC. “insidious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. “insidious”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.