cunning
[ kuhn-ing ]
/ ˈkʌn ɪŋ /
noun
skill employed in a shrewd or sly manner, as in deceiving; craftiness; guile.
adeptness in performance; dexterity: The weaver's hand lost its cunning.
adjective
verb
Obsolete.
present participle of can1.
Origin of cunning
SYNONYMS FOR cunning
2
adroitness.
synonym study for cunning
1.
Cunning,
artifice,
craft imply an inclination toward deceit, slyness, and trickery.
Cunning implies a shrewd, often instinctive skill in concealing or disguising the real purposes of one's actions:
not intelligence but a low kind of cunning. An
artifice is a clever, unscrupulous ruse, used to mislead others:
a successful artifice to conceal one's motives.
Craft suggests underhand methods and the use of deceptive devices and tricks to attain one's ends:
craft and deceitfulness in every act.
OTHER WORDS FROM cunning
Words nearby cunning
cuniculus,
cuniform,
cunjevoi,
cunner,
cunnilingus,
cunning,
cunningham,
cunninghame graham,
cunobelinus,
cunt,
cuomo
Example sentences from the Web for cunningly
British Dictionary definitions for cunningly
cunning
/ (ˈkʌnɪŋ) /
adjective
crafty and shrewd, esp in deception; sly
cunning as a fox
made with or showing skill or cleverness; ingenious
noun
craftiness, esp in deceiving; slyness
cleverness, skill, or ingenuity
Derived forms of cunning
cunningly, adverb cunningness, nounWord Origin for cunning
Old English
cunnende; related to
cunnan to know (see
can
1),
cunnian to test, experience, Old Norse
kunna to know