adjective Subject to frequent changes in direction.
adjective Moving from one object to another; not looking directly and steadily at the person with whom one is speaking.
adjective Having the appearance of being dishonest, criminal, or unreliable.
He was a shifty character in a seedy bar, and I checked my wallet was still there after talking to him.
adjective Resourceful; full of, or ready with, shifts or expedients.
adjective ↑ Thomas Wright, Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English, London: Henry G. Bohn, Volume 2, p. 848: “Cunning; artful” (Craven [Yorkshire]).