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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 .
Use cunningly in a Sentence
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.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.
Cite This Source Link To cunningly
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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