Suspicious (about somebody or something), wary, distrustful, unwilling to confide.
This word has been chosen since it has nothing whatsoever to do with salacious glances, despite the conviction to the contrary that is increasingly in evidence in some quarters.
The more obvious revelations concern his sex life, but there is much else to be gleaned from them about the cultural atmosphere, and even the politics, of Britain before the Second World War. Strachey was a bundle of sharply - spikily - contrasting traits, a member of the intellectual aristocracy who relished his contacts with the aristocracy of blood, a democrat who was sometimes leery of the people, one of the original champagne socialists.
Paul Levy, Telegraph, 14 March 2005, Telegraph
writing about his book, The Letters of Lytton Strachey. Amazon
Likewise, Griffith is leery of the equally modern idea of seeking a legal solution to what is in his view a moral problem.
Christopher Sorrentino, The New York Times, 1 April 2007. New York Times
reviewing David Griffith's A Good War is Hard to Find: The Art of Violence in AmericaAmazon
He also said Stamm wasn't able to telephone, and that he had temporarily taken charge of the situation. ... I couldn't get any more out of him; but there was something about the way the fellow talked that made me leery.
