Skullduggery is underhand dealing and trickery. A bit of skullduggery.
It is half-affectionate, which is why it suits committee politics rather than serious crime. The spelling wanders between one l and two, and nobody minds either.
1nounskullduggeryUnderhand dealing and trickery.
“There was some skullduggery over who got onto the committee.”
skullduggery is trickery.
Also accepted in games: skulduggery
Scots
sculduddery
English
skulduggery
English, today
skullduggery
Built from
skulduggery An alteration of Scots sculduddery, sculdudrie (“adultery, unchaste behaviour; obscenity, lewdness”), of unknown (probably a euphemism). Relation to skull is speculative at best and likely folk etymology. The American spelling skullduggery is in keeping with terms such as skillful and willful.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA