Entry Word: artful

Function: adjective

Meaning: 1 clever at attaining one's ends by indirect and often deceptive means <the lawyer, by her artful questioning, got the witness to admit he had been lying>

Synonyms beguiling, cagey (also cagy), crafty, cunning, devious, foxy, guileful, slick, sly, subtle, wily

Related Words astute, cute, facile, glib, sharp, shrewd; crooked, deceitful, deceptive, dishonest, insidious, insinuating, Machiavellian, shady, shifty, slippery, sneaky, treacherous, tricky, underhand, underhanded, unscrupulous; backhanded, double-dealing, hypocritical, insincere, mealymouthed, smooth-tongued, two-faced; circuitous, circular, roundabout; clandestine, concealed, covert, furtive, hugger-mugger, secret, stealthy, surreptitious, undercover; calculating, designing, scheming, plotting

Near Antonyms obvious, open, patent, plain, public, unconcealed; aboveboard, candid, direct, forthright, frank, honest, natural, outspoken, plainspoken, real, simple, sincere, straightforward, unaffected, unpretending

Antonyms artless, guileless, ingenuous

2 showing a use of the imagination and creativity especially in inventing <the artful inventor who came up with the vacuum bottle> — see clever 1
3 accomplished with trained ability <that was an artful way to handle a very delicate situation> — see skillful