artful dodgers
Slippery cunning types
Artful dodgers are people skilled at evading responsibility, obligations, or difficult situations through cleverness or cunning.
The phrase comes from the Artful Dodger, the young pickpocket in Dickens's *Oliver Twist*, and retains connotations of street-smart evasiveness: The committee was full of artful dodgers who never committed to anything in writing.
- slyCleverly deceptive
- shrewdPractically clever, perceptive
- cunningSly, scheming cleverness
- craftyCleverly deceptive
- smooth talkerPersuasive, often insincere speaker
fast talker · silver tongue · devious · schemer · trickster · wily · slick · rogues · guileful · confidence trick · sleight of hand · con artists · stratagem · subtle · rascals · Fagin · Oliver Twist · antiheroes
artful dodgersstraight shooters
Forthright, honest individuals
honest brokers · straight talkers · open books · straight arrows
artful, dodger, dodge, artfully, artfulness, arts, artsy, artist, artistic