shrewd

1 having or showing a practical cleverness or judgment a shrewd used car dealer who knew how to make the best possible deal shrewd investments that paid off big Synonyms astute, canny, clear-eyed, clear-sighted, hard-boiled, hardheaded, heady, knowing, savvy, sharp, sharp-witted, smart Related Words artful, cagey (also cagy), crafty, cunning, devious, dodgy [chiefly British], foxy, guileful, pawky [chiefly British], slick, sly, subtle, tricky, wily; discerning, insightful, perceptive, percipient, perspicacious, sagacious, sage, sapient, wise; experienced, veteran; discriminating, discriminative; agile, alert, brainy, bright, brilliant, clever, intelligent, keen, nimble, quick, quick-witted, sharp-eyed, sharp-sighted; apt, ingenious, resourceful; calculating, scheming Near Antonyms artless, guileless, ingenuous, innocent, naive (or naïve); exploitable, gullible (also gullable); unperceptive, unwise; dense, dull, obtuse; airheaded, birdbrained, brain-dead, brainless, dim-witted, dopey (also dopy), dumb, empty-headed, feebleminded, gormless [chiefly British], half-witted, knuckleheaded, lamebrain (or lamebrained), lunkheaded, simple, slow, slow-witted, softheaded, stupid, thickheaded, thick-witted, unintelligent, weak-minded; foolish, idiotic (also idiotical), imbecile (or imbecilic), moronic, silly, thoughtless, witless; ignorant, uninformed Antonyms unknowing

2 causing intense discomfort to one's skin she pulled her coat tighter against the shrewd breeze whipping down the alley Synonyms biting, bitter, keen, penetrating, piercing, raw, sharp, cutting, smarting, stingingRelated Words brisk, invigorating, nippy, snappy; needlelike, prickly, tingling; caustic, corrosiveNear Antonyms balmy, gentle, mild, soothing

3 clever at attaining one's ends by indirect and often deceptive means a shrewd operator in the real estate game, she made every buyer think they were getting the deal of the century Synonyms beguiling, cagey (also cagy), crafty, cunning, cute, designing, devious, dodgy [chiefly British], foxy, guileful, scheming, artful, slick, sly, subtle, tricky, wilyRelated 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, plottingNear 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, trustingAntonyms artless, guileless, ingenuous, innocent, undesigning