artful

play

adjective art·ful \ ˈärt-fəl \

Definition of artful

1 :performed with or showing art or skill

an artful performance on the violin

2 a :using or characterized by art and skill :dexterous

an artful prose stylist

b :adroit in attaining an end usually by insinuating or indirect means :wily

an artful cross-examiner

3 :artificial

trim walks and artful bowers
—William Wordsworth

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artfully

play \-fə-lē\ adverb

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artfulness

noun

See artful defined for English-language learners

See artful defined for kids

Examples of artful in a Sentence

the artful lawyer got the witness to admit he had been lying
that kitchen gadget is an artful tool for extracting cherry pits

Recent Examples of artful from the Web

Trevor, the hero of the very promising, exceptionally timely and consistently artful new musical from writer Dan Collins and composer Julianne Wick Davis at Writers Theatre, is no ordinary kid.

— chris jones, chicagotribune.com, "'Trevor' a promising musical about a kid who's easy to love," 17 Aug. 2017
How a city treats that object will turn on its collective ability to make the functional artful.

— scott canon, kansascity, "A smart city need not be ugly," 7 Aug. 2017
But tucked within the artful work, just under the bird’s beak, was a listening device.

— maya wei-haas, Smithsonian, "You’d Never Have to Plug in This Battery-Free Cell Phone," 20 July 2017
In that instance, the artful mis-parking could result in a citation though the truck’s owner was sitting a few feet away.

— logan jenkins, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Reserving parking places is wrong, but is it illegal?," 18 July 2017
Plant Food and Wine seemed like the perfect complement to the serene space, and the artful restaurant quickly made a name for itself — drawing a four-star (exceptional) review from the Herald, one of only two in 2016.

— nancy dahlberg and carlos frías, miamiherald, "This celebrity chef brought Miami his innovative vegan food — and a trail of lawsuits," 15 July 2017
A film piece by Chicago's Manual Cinema, the cutting-edge shadow puppet company, puts some of the objects into artful motion on a big screen in the center of the main gallery.

— chicago tribune, chicagotribune.com, "If these museum objects could talk, what a tale they would tell," 7 July 2017
Like the works in the exhibit, partygoers reflected a diversity of looks, creating a colorful and artful melange.

— sue strachan, NOLA.com, "Art smart chic: Exhibition opening attracts fashionable crowd in NOLA," 30 June 2017
Instead of being tight and pastry-like, this vibe was more artful and disheveled.

— hannah morrill, Allure, "12 Pretty Hairstyles to Inspire Your Next Wedding Look," 30 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'artful.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

A writer may produce an artful piece of prose, one that's clearly and elegantly written. The same writer might also make an artful argument, one that cleverly leaves out certain details and plays up others so as to make a stronger case. In the first instance, the prose is well crafted; in the second, the argument might instead be called crafty. But even though both uses are correct, most of us still use artful somewhat differently from artistic.

First Known Use of artful

1583

artful Synonyms

Synonyms

beguiling, cagey (also cagy), crafty, cunning, cute, designing, devious, dodgy [chiefly British], foxy, guileful, scheming, shrewd, slick, sly, subtle, tricky, wily

Antonyms

artless, guileless, ingenuous, innocent, undesigning

Near Antonyms

obvious, open, patent, plain, public, unconcealed; aboveboard, candid, direct, forthright, frank, honest, natural, outspoken, plainspoken, real, simple, sincere, straightforward, unaffected, unpretending, unpretentious, unvarnished; childlike, impressionable, simpleminded, unsophisticated, unworldly; unforced, unstudied; trustful, trusting

Synonym Discussion of artful

sly, cunning, crafty, wily, tricky, foxy, artful, slick mean attaining or seeking to attain one's ends by guileful or devious means. sly implies furtiveness, lack of candor, and skill in concealing one's aims and methods.

- a sly corporate raider

cunning suggests the inventive use of sometimes limited intelligence in overreaching or circumventing.

- the cunning fox avoided the trap

crafty implies cleverness and subtlety of method.

- a crafty lefthander

wily implies skill and deception in maneuvering.

- the wily fugitive escaped the posse

tricky is more likely to suggest shiftiness and unreliability than skill in deception and maneuvering.

- a tricky political operative

foxy implies a shrewd and wary craftiness usually involving devious dealing.

- a foxy publicity man planting stories

artful implies indirectness in dealing and often connotes sophistication or cleverness.

- elicited the information by artful questioning

slick emphasizes smoothness and guile.

- slick operators selling time-sharing

ARTFUL Defined for English Language Learners

artful

play

adjective

Definition of artful for English Language Learners

: done with or showing artistic skill
: good at getting or achieving things in ways that are clever and not noticeable : used to get or achieve things in ways that are clever and not noticeable