skullduggery

skullduggery

An act or instance of deceitful, duplicitous, or dishonorably trickery. The sheer amount of skullduggery in the political drama beggars belief, but it certainly is entertaining to watch! I had a suspicion that there was some sort of skullduggery going on, but I wasn't going to pipe up until I had proof.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

skullduggery

(ˈskəlˈdəgɚi)
n. deceitful doings; dirty work. Without skullduggery, politics wouldn’t be interesting.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • double-tongued
  • double cross
  • carry fire in one hand and water in the other
  • swallow (something) hook, line, and sinker
  • swallow hook, line, and sinker
  • a false friend and a shadow stay only while the sun shines
  • cat's paw
  • cat's-paw
  • paw
  • maneuver into
References in periodicals archive
Mr Omand said that there could have been some skullduggery when it was taken down originally and that there was an original somewhere.
Hoover's unwillingness to go after the mob was more a matter of charlatanry and sheer bureaucratic entropy than sexual skullduggery.
Micheal Martin needs to move now and show force as a leader that this kind of skullduggery will not be tolerated.
Martin Handford 2 How To Train Your Dragon, Cressida Cowell 3 The What The Ladybird Heard Song, Julia Donaldson 4 Skullduggery Pleasant, Derek Landy 5 Winnie Flies Again, Valerie Thomas 6 Big Day Out, Jacqueline Wilson 7 The Clever Little Kitchen, Holly Webb 8 Roald Dahl's Fantabulous Facts, Roald Dahl 9 The Name of The Star, Maureen Johnson 10 The Sense of An Ending, Julian Barnes HARDBACKS 1 The Worst Thing About My Sister, Jacqueline Wilson 2 I've Got Your Number, Sophie Kinsella 3 Waiting For Sunrise, William Boyd 4 Capital, John Lanchester 5 Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, Jeff Kinney 6 Bradshaw's Handbook, George Bradshaw 7 The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey 8 The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year, Sue Townsend 9 Gangsta Granny, David Walliams 10 The Boy Who Fell to Earth, Kathy Lette
Doesn't such organisational skullduggery make your blood run cold?
In discoursing Europe's current problems and how it may affect Britain, you categorically state, quite rightly in my opinion, "to blame instead were the financial mismanagement, incompetence and skullduggery that sometimes can seem almost endemic in the EU".
It's no fun dealing with arrogant umpires, drug addicts, bigots, and all the skullduggery in the money market.
The magazine includes a celebration of the cigar by BBC world affairs editor John Simpson and an interview with comedy writer Laurence Marks, chairman of the Pipesmokers' Council.Readers are also warned about the latest skullduggery from the tobacco lover's worst enemy, the anti-smoking pressure group Ash (Action on Smoking and Health).
Expertise immunized it, as did frank knowledge of its own skullduggery. Robert Lacey does not probe these paradoxes, but his tale, well told, takes us through the territory.
A groundswell of concern cannot logically precede revelations of skullduggery. The media must first expose and excoriate the banditos - which they have not done, citing the lack of public interest!
YOUR leader (The Journal, November 5) was, sadly, reflective of your political bias regarding the Whitley Bay dome, an exercise in financial skullduggery.
CASH for carers is being held back because of skullduggery, it has been claimed.
Other top stars are being hunted to play part of the Skullduggery's supernatural team.
Detective Inspector Ewan Kindness said: "There has been no skullduggery. It is exactly how it was taken."
FROM the slopes of the Pyrenees to the tarmac of Hockenheim, skullduggery was the talk of the week.