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cunningly

 - 3 dictionary results

cun⋅ning

[kuhn-ing]
–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 )


cun⋅ning⋅ly, adverb
cun⋅ning⋅ness, noun


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.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.
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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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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.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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