artful

1 clever at attaining one's ends by indirect and often deceptive means the artful lawyer got the witness to admit he had been lying Synonyms beguiling, cagey (also cagy), crafty, cunning, cute, designing, devious, dodgy [chiefly British], foxy, guileful, scheming, shrewd, slick, sly, subtle, tricky, wily Related Words astute, facile, glib, sharp; crooked, deceitful, deceptive, dishonest, fraudulent, insinuating, knavish, Machiavellian, oblique, serpentine, shady, shifty, slippery, sneaky, treacherous, underhand, underhanded, unscrupulous; backhanded, double-dealing, hypocritical, insincere, left-handed, mealy, mealymouthed, smooth-tongued, two-faced; circuitous, circular, roundabout; clandestine, concealed, covert, furtive, hugger-mugger, secret, stealthy, surreptitious, undercover; calculating, plotting 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 Antonyms artless, guileless, ingenuous, innocent, undesigning

2 showing a noteworthy use of the imagination and creativity especially in inventing that kitchen gadget is an artful tool for extracting cherry pits Synonyms clever, creative, imaginative, ingenious, innovative, inventiveRelated Words adventurous, fresh, groundbreaking, novel, original, visionary; cleverish, gadgety, gimmicky; convenient, handy, neat, nifty, practical, useful; complex, sophisticated; adroit, deft, dexterous (also dextrous), expert, handsome, tricky; brainy, intelligent, sharp, smartNear Antonyms dull, pedantic, pedestrian, stodgy; assembly-line, canned, cookie-cutter, derivative, hackneyed, unoriginal; impractical, uselessAntonyms uncreative, unimaginative

3 accomplished with trained ability that was an artful way to handle a very delicate situation Synonyms adroit, skillful, bravura, deft, delicate, dexterous (also dextrous), expert, masterful, masterly, practiced (also practised), virtuoso, workmanlikeRelated Words facile, smooth; artistic, creative, fancy, ingenious, neat; adept, clever, cunning; able, adequate, capable, competentNear Antonyms awkward, clumsy, crude, klutzy; ineffective, ineffectual; incompetent, ineptAntonyms amateur, amateurish, artless, rude, unprofessional, unskillful