Insidious Meaning and Usage

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Insidious Meaning:

adj.
1. Working or spreading harmfully in a subtle or stealthy manner: “insidious rumors”

2. Beguiling but harmful; alluring: “insidious pleasures”

3. Lying in wait; watching an opportunity to entrap; deceitful; sly; treacherous; said of persons; as, the insidious foe. “The insidious witch” “insidious arts”, “The insidious whisper of the bad angel”

4. (Science: medicine) insidious disease is a disease existing, without marked symptoms, but ready to become active upon some slight occasion; a disease not appearing to be as bad as it really is. Being a disease that progresses with few or no symptoms to indicate its gravity; describing a development that is gradual, subtle, or imperceptible. Certain chronic diseases, such as glaucoma, can develop insidiously with symptoms that are not detected by the patient until the disorder is established.

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Forms:
insidiously - adverb
insidiousness - noun

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Use Insidious in a sentence:

1. The investigators uncovered an insidious scheme to rob people of their life savings.
Adjective: cunning, deceitful

2. The stalker was insidious in his attempts to reach his victim and outwit the police.
3. The insidious burglar was able to sneak into the house without being heard or seen.
Adjective: designing, cunning, sneaky


4. The onset of the cold was so insidious that Tom hardly knew what had hit him.
Adjective: sneaky, stealthy, subtle


5. Jennifer spread insidious rumors of her opponent before the school election
Adjective: treacherous


6. He was unaware that an insidious cancer was consuming him.
Adjective: pernicious


7. The battle was lost due to the actions of insidious defectors.
Adjective: deceptive

8. The Trent was very full. It swept silent and insidious under the bridge, traveling in a soft body.
Adjective: quietly, subtly

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Insidious Synonyms:
subtle, cunning, designing, smooth, tricky, crooked, slick, sly, treacherous, deceptive, wily, crafty, artful, disingenuous, Machiavellian, deceitful, surreptitious, duplicitous, guileful, perniciously, circumventive, alluring, sneaky, ensnaring, stealthy.

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Insidious Antonyms:
fair, honest, open, sincere, straightforward

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Some more examples:

1. Inflation is insidious, sneaky, and in the long term, a possible killer to your financial planning.

2. One of the most insidious uses of such messages is in subliminal advertising, where one’s subconscious is deliberately bombarded in an effort to make that person buy a certain product.

3. But there's another type of poison perhaps a little more insidious — thought poison — commonly called "gossip."

4. The condition may be insidious in onset, caused by infection, infarction or insufficient insulin.

5. Some patients, however, present with a more insidious onset.

6. I think it is a particularly insidious form of plagiarism.

7. Piecemeal change to pub exteriors and interiors, while more insidious than wholesale rebuilding, can be equally destructive.

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