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cunning

 - 7 dictionary results
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cun⋅ning

  [kuhn-ing]
Use cunning in a Sentence
–noun
1. skill employed in a shrewd or sly manner, as in deceiving; craftiness; guile.
2. adeptness in performance; dexterity: The weaver's hand lost its cunning.
–adjective
3. showing or made with ingenuity.
4. artfully subtle or shrewd; crafty; sly.
5. Informal. charmingly cute or appealing: a cunning little baby.
6. Archaic. skillful; expert.
–verb
7. Obsolete. ppr. of can 1 .
Origin:
1275–1325; (n.) ME; OE cunnung, equiv. to cunn(an) to know (see can 1 ) + -ung -ing 1 ; (adj., v.) ME, prp. of cunnan to know (see can 1 , -ing 2 )

Related forms:
cun⋅ning⋅ly, adverb
cun⋅ning⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
1. shrewdness, artfulness, wiliness, trickery, finesse, intrigue, slyness, deception. 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. 2. adroitness. 3. ingenious, skillful. 4. artful, wily, tricky, foxy.
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can

1  [kan; unstressed kuhn] auxiliary verb and verb, present singular 1st person can, 2nd can or (Archaic) canst, 3rd can, present plural can; past singular 1st person could, 2nd could or (Archaic) couldst, 3rd could, past plural could. For auxiliary verb: imperative, infinitive, and participles lacking. For verb (Obsolete): imperative can; infinitive can; past participle could; present participle cun⋅ning.
–auxiliary verb
1. to be able to; have the ability, power, or skill to: She can solve the problem easily, I'm sure.
2. to know how to: He can play chess, although he's not particularly good at it.
3. to have the power or means to: A dictator can impose his will on the people.
4. to have the right or qualifications to: He can change whatever he wishes in the script.
5. may; have permission to: Can I speak to you for a moment?
6. to have the possibility: A coin can land on either side.
–verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
7. Obsolete. to know.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME, OE, pres. ind. sing. 1st, 3rd person of cunnan to know, know how; c. G, ON, Goth kann; see ken, know

Usage note:
Can1 and may1 are frequently but not always interchangeable in senses indicating possibility: A power failure can (or may) occur at any time. Despite the insistence by some, that can means only “to be able” and may means “to be permitted,” both are regularly used in seeking or granting permission: Can (or May) I borrow your tape recorder? You can (or may) use it tomorrow. Sentences using can occur chiefly in spoken English. May in this sense occurs more frequently in formal contexts: May I address the court, Your Honor? In negative constructions, can't or cannot is more common than may not: You can't have it today. I need it myself. The contraction mayn't is rare.
Can but and cannot but are formal and now somewhat old-fashioned expressions suggesting that there is no possible alternative to doing something. Can but is equivalent to can only: We can but do our best. Cannot but is the equivalent of cannot help but: We cannot but protest against these injustices. See also cannot, help.

can

2  [kan] noun, verb, canned, can⋅ning.
–noun
1. a sealed container for food, beverages, etc., as of aluminum, sheet iron coated with tin, or other metal: a can of soup.
2. a receptacle for garbage, ashes, etc.: a trash can.
3. a bucket, pail, or other container for holding or carrying liquids: water can.
4. a drinking cup; tankard.
5. a metal or plastic container for holding film on cores or reels.
6. Slang: Usually Vulgar. toilet; bathroom.
7. Slang. jail: He's been in the can for a week.
8. Slang: Sometimes Vulgar. buttocks.
9. Military Slang.
a. a depth charge.
b. a destroyer.
–verb (used with object)
10. to preserve by sealing in a can, jar, etc.
11. Slang. to dismiss; fire.
12. Slang. to throw (something) away.
13. Slang. to put a stop to: Can that noise!
14. to record, as on film or tape.
—Idioms
15. carry the can, British and Canadian Slang. to take the responsibility.
16. in the can, recorded on film; completed: The movie is in the can and ready for release.
Origin:
bef. 1000; ME, OE canne, c. G Kanne, ON kanna, all perh. < WGmc; cf. LL canna small vessel
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To cunning
cun·ning   (kŭn'ĭng)   
adj.  

  1. Marked by or given to artful subtlety and deceptiveness.

  2. Executed with or exhibiting ingenuity.

  3. Delicately pleasing; pretty or cute: a cunning pet.

n.  

  1. Skill in deception; guile.

  2. Skill or adeptness in execution or performance; dexterity.


[Middle English, present participle of connen, to know, from Old English cunnan; see gnō- in Indo-European roots.]
cun'ning·ly adv., cun'ning·ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
can

  1. n.
    the head. : Jerry landed one on Frank's can. Frank crumpled.
  2. n.
    toilet. : Restroom? Hell, I ain't tired! Where's the can?
  3. n.
    the buttocks. (Usually objectionable. See also bucket.) : The guy slipped on the ice and fell on his can.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

cunning 
c.1325, prp. of cunnen "to know" (see can (v.)). Originally meaning "learned;" the sense of "skillfully deceitful" is probably 14c.

can  (v.)
O.E. 1st & 3rd pers. sing. pres. indic. of cunnan "know, have power to, be able," (also "to have carnal knowledge"), from P.Gmc. *kunnan "to be mentally able, to have learned" (cf. O.N. kenna "to know, make known," O.Fris. kanna "to recognize, admit," Ger. kennen "to know," Goth. kannjan "to make known"), from PIE base *gno- (see know). Absorbing the third sense of "to know," that of "to know how to do something" (in addition to "to know as a fact" and "to be acquainted with" something or someone"). An O.E. preterite-present verb, its original p.p., couth, survives only in its negation (see uncouth), but cf. could. Cannot is attested from c.1400; can't first recorded 1706 (O.E. expressed the notion by ne cunnan).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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