devious \DEE-vee-us\ adjective
*1 : deviating from a straight line : roundabout
2 : behaving wrongly : errant
3 : tricky, cunning; also : deceptive
Example sentence: In _The Discoverers_, Daniel J. Boorstin describes the Strait of Magellan as "the narrowest, most devious, most circuitous of all the straits connecting two great bodies of water."
Did you know? If you think someone devious has lost their way, you're right, etymologically speaking -- the word derives from the Latin adjective "devius," itself formed by a combination of the prefix "de-" ("from, away") and the noun "via," meaning "way." When "devious" was first used in the late 16th century, it referred to a literal wandering off the "way," describing something that meandered or had no fixed course ("a devious route" or "devious breezes"). Relatively quickly, however, the word came to describe someone or something that has metaphorically rather than literally left the "right path," and then to apply to deceitful or otherwise behavior that is not "straight"-forward.
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