cunning

²cun·ning

noun \ˈkə-niŋ\

Definition of CUNNING

1

obsolete a : knowledge, learning b : magic art

2

: dexterous skill and subtlety (as in inventing, devising, or executing) <high-ribbed vault … with perfect cunning framed — William Wordsworth>

3

: craft, slyness

Examples of CUNNING

1. He may be a fraud, but you have to admire his cunning.
2. <the cunning with which Tom Sawyer was able to get others to whitewash the fence for him>
3. 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
4. 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
5. 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

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

Related Words: calculation, care, design; savvy, sharpness, shrewdness; cleverness, ingeniousness, ingenuity, inventiveness; ease, facility, finesse; deceitfulness, duplicity, shiftiness, underhandedness

Near Antonyms: amateurishness, awkwardness, clumsiness, crudeness, klutziness, rudeness; inability, inadequacy, inadequateness, incapability, incapacity, incompetence, ineffectiveness, ineffectuality, ineffectualness, inefficacy, inefficiency

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See Synonym Discussion at art

Rhymes with CUNNING

running, stunning