Question of the Day #694

In the absence of global agreements, expect vaccine nationalism and geopolitical skulduggery to proliferate in the months ahead

From the lede of this article at The Telegraph.

上記の文で、skulduggeryの意味は？
In the sentence above, what does "skulduggery" mean?

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解答

意味：
英辞郎によると、

不正（行為）

Answer

According to Merriam-Webster:

underhanded or unscrupulous behavior
also: a devious device or trick

Examples

• the company's apparently healthy bottom line was merely an illusion, the result of years of accounting skulduggery
• The quest now is to find an investor willing to plunge into the arcane world of F1, with all its political skulduggery and financial worries. Times, Sunday Times (2014)
• He had not the slightest inkling that she, who had twice spoiled her father's skulduggery so far as it affected him, felt any but the friendliest of feelings toward him.
• The sticking-point was a problem that has long bedevilled the EU: how to tackle corruption and other skulduggery in countries that benefit from EU transfers. — The Economist, 16 Dec. 2020
• Four years later, he was defeated by Thomas Jefferson in a fraught election that exposed deep internal rifts among Americans, racial anxieties and more than a little skulduggery. — Ted Widmer, WSJ, 4 Dec. 2020

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