suspicious

shady character

A dubious, suspicious, or potentially immoral or unlawful person. The security guard caught a shady character hanging around the back entrance to the warehouse. I've always thought he was a bit of a shady character, so I was a bit nervous when Janet said she was going to work for him.
See also: character, shady

suspicious character

A dubious, suspicious, or potentially immoral or unlawful person. The security guard caught a suspicious character hanging around the back entrance to the warehouse. I've always thought he was a bit of a suspicious character, so I was a bit nervous when Janet said she was going to work for him.
See also: character, suspicious
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

shady character

 and a suspicious character
Fig. an untrustworthy person; a person who makes people suspicious. There is a suspicious character lurking about in the hallway. Please call the police.
See also: character, shady
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • shady character
  • suspicious character
  • shady deal
  • shady past
  • sup with the devil
  • dine with the devil
  • bad to the bone
  • it's no crime to (do something)
  • back room
  • on the shady side of
References in periodicals archive
SEcret Service tweeted, "Suspicious package has been cleared, @WhiteHouse activity returned to normal.
"It's critical that firms have effective AML systems in place so that they can comply with their obligations to review and report suspicious transactions, including those involving trading in microcap securities or potentially suspicious money transfers," said Brad Bennett, FINRA's executive vice president and chief of enforcement, in announcing the fine.
Suspicious person/motor vehicle, caller states he is being followed, party spoken to, 70 Commons Drive
California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona, respectively, are the four states that account for the most suspicious short-sale activity in 2013.
Of the 108 cases diagnosed as "suspicious for FN" on cytologic evaluation, the follow-up histologic diagnoses were malignant in 26 (24%) and benign in 82 (76%) cases.
SUSPICIOUS SITCH It's the night of the big dance, and you feel like you're on a date with some Laguna Beach loser.
Northwest Airlines DC-10-30 en route from Minneapolis to Mumbai via Amsterdam yesterday abruptly returned to Schiphol Airport shortly after departure, at which point 12 passengers were arrested by US air marshals for "suspicious" behavior.
Since insurance companies must know their distribution sources, it is essential that their sales forces establish appropriate compliance and suspicious activity reporting systems.
In most cases, SARs must be filed no later than 30 calendar days after the date that the suspicious activity occurred.
Langford, Jr., associate director of FinCEN's Regulatory Policy and Programs Division, stated, "Comprehensive Bank Secrecy Act compliance programs that enable financial institutions to identify and report suspicious activities are the foundation of our efforts to combat money laundering and protect our financial system.
However, the computer flagged as suspicious about twice that number of masses that turned out to be harmless.
Sometimes what happens is that people of color, white people, Jews, whoever, are suspicious because of skin--which I understand.
Operation TIPS "will be a nationwide program giving millions of American truckers, letter carriers, train conductors, ship captains, utility employees, and others a formal way to report suspicious terrorist activity," says the citizencorps.gov web site.
First, the Treasury Department tried to tell banks they had to "Know Your Customer" and report anything "suspicious." Now the Department of Health and Human Services is trying to get states to tell doctors and pharmacists to know their customers and report anything "unusual."
His character of Gary Jensen in Lynne Stopkewich's Suspicious River strays into something new - malevolence.