crafty (or cunning) adj.: jesuitical (sometimes cap.)
[While “crafty” or “cunning” can certainly be used in complimentary ways (e.g., as synonyms for “clever”), this word is invariably used disparagingly, especially in regard to the use of subtly fallacious arguments, as in this example.] [Senator Charles Robb] admitted to having received from [Miss Virginia] a “nude massage” but denied they’d had coital relations. [E]ven if everything he said is literally true, he has still been deeply dishonest—that his novel sexual code enabled him to issue declarations (“I’ve never slept with another woman”) designed to mislead. [T]here is an obsessive, missing-the-point quality to all such Jesuitical sexual distinctions . . . (Michael Lewis, “The New Lust Loophole; On Chuck Robb and Too-Subtle Sexual Distinctions,” Washington Post, 3/20/2004.)
