Brewer's: Sly-Boots

One who appears to be a dolt, but who is really wide awake; a cunning dolt.

“The frog called the lazy one several times, but la vain; there was no such thing as stirring him, though the sly-boots heard well enough all the while.” —Adventures of Abdalla, p. 32 (1729).

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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