The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 letter word OBLIQUE
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
O
B
L
I
Q
U
E
More clues leading to the result OBLIQUE
- Roundabout, or what looks like one, desolate, we understand
- Compel queen to go in for good? It’s not straightforward
- Require question for government to be slanted
- By the way, more than half of strong drinks make you slash
- Inclined to be devious
- Indirect slanting
- Intelligence scores dismal, approaching zero, skew
- Roundabout and ring road of a kind leads to Staffs town, as satnav says?
- Slash old boy replacing head of close-knit group
- Old spartan picked up stroke
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Inclined to be devious" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case inclined to be devious = oblique.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does OBLIQUE mean?
OBLIQUE noun- An oblique line.
- (grammar) The oblique case.
- To deviate from a perpendicular line; to move in an oblique direction.
- To march in a direction oblique to the line of the column or platoon; — formerly accomplished by oblique steps, now by direct steps, the men half-facing either to the right or left.
- To slant (text, etc.) at an angle.
- Not erect or perpendicular; neither parallel to, nor at right angles from, the base; slanting; inclined.
- Not straightforward; indirect; obscure; hence, disingenuous; underhand; perverse; sinister.
- Not direct in descent; not following the line of father and son; collateral.
- Of leaves, having the base of the blade asymmetrical, with one side lower than the other.
- Of branches or roots, growing at an angle that is neither vertical nor horizontal.
- (grammar) Pertaining to the oblique case (non-nominative).
- (grammar) Of speech or narration, indirect, employing the actual words of the speaker, but as related by a third person, having the first person in pronoun and verb converted into the third person, adverbs of present time into the past, etc.
- Employing oblique motion, motion or progression in which one part (voice) stays on the same note while another ascends or descends.
- A slashing action or motion, particularly:
- A mark made by a slashing motion, particularly:
- Something resembling such a mark, particularly:
- The loose woody debris remaining from a slash, (particularly forestry) the trimmings left while preparing felled trees for removal.
- Slash fiction.
- A drink of something; a draft.
- A piss: an act of urination.
- A swampy area; a swamp.
- A large quantity of watery food such as broth.
- The period of a transitory breeze.
- An interval of good weather.
- The loose part of a rope; slack.