cunning
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About Our Definitions: All forms of a word (noun, verb, etc.) are now displayed on one page.1cun·ning
adjective \ˈkə-niŋ\Definition of CUNNING
1
: dexterous or crafty in the use of special resources (as skill or knowledge) or in attaining an end <a cunning plotter>
2
: displaying keen insight <a cunning observation>
3
: characterized by wiliness and trickery <cunning schemes>
4
: prettily appealing : cute <a cunning little kitten>
— cun·ning·ly \-niŋ-lē\ adverb
— cun·ning·ness noun
See Examples of CUNNING
- She was cunning enough to fool me.
- <a cunning, underhanded plan to win the election by preying on people's fears and prejudices>
- … this cat has made his way into the Fitness Center for cunning reasons of his own and reveals himself only to certain privileged individuals. —Joyce Carol Oates, Harper's, June 2008
- Throughout his time hunting the vampire, Manolito had been wounded and poisoned on many occasions, but still he'd survived because he'd always used his brain. He was cunning and shrewd and very intelligent. —Christine Feehan, Dark Possession, 2007
- I have recounted the advice I received from an old-timer about how to keep raccoons out of garbage cans—advice that eventually included the purchase of a combination lock. (“A raccoon's cunning, but he's got no head for figures.”) —Calvin Trillin, New Yorker, 11 Oct. 1993
- So the Leader went into his den and looked at his children—two very cunning little cubs, lying on the floor. —Hugh Lofting, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, 1920
- A cunning politician is often found skulking under the clerical robe, with an outside all religion, and an inside all political rancour. —Washington Irving, A History of New York, 1809, in History, Tales and Sketches, (1977) 1983
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Origin of CUNNING
Middle English, from present participle of can know
First Known Use: 14th century
Related to CUNNING
2cun·ning
noun \ˈkə-niŋ\Definition of CUNNING
2
: dexterous skill and subtlety (as in inventing, devising, or executing) <high-ribbed vault … with perfect cunning framed — William Wordsworth>
Examples of CUNNING
- He may be a fraud, but you have to admire his cunning.
- <the cunning with which Tom Sawyer was able to get others to whitewash the fence for him>
- The writing is best in the play's later scenes, when More deploys his legal cunning to help him weasel out of a political trap set by the oleaginous Thomas Cromwell … —John Lahr, New Yorker, 20 Oct. 2008
- Tsvetaeva was lacking, moreover, in any instinct for cunning or self-preservation, or even for what might be called mere getting along … —Claudia Roth Pierpont, New Yorker, 7 Feb. 1994
- He could see no change, save that in the eyes there was a look of cunning and in the mouth the curved wrinkle of the hypocrite. —Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
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Origin of CUNNING
(see 1cunning)
First Known Use: 14th century
Related to CUNNING
- Synonyms
- artfulness, artifice, caginess (also cageyness), canniness, craft, craftiness, cunningness, deviousness, foxiness, guile, guilefulness, slickness, slyness, sneakiness, subtleness, subtlety, wiliness
- Antonyms
- artlessness, ineptitude, ineptness, maladroitness
See Synonym Discussion at art
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