cunning

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“
But underneath all her cunning is the rock of eternal fidelity.

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Definitions (26)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. adjective Marked by or given to artful subtlety and deceptiveness.
  2. adjective Executed with or exhibiting ingenuity.
  3. adjective Delicately pleasing; pretty or cute: a cunning pet.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (14)

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Examples (50)

  • His ambition and his cunning are the only steady qualities in him. —  John Adams by David McCullough
  • The derogative sense of sly and cunning, which is, in the original, implied by the demonstrative pronoun "that," a Chippewa would express by a mere inflection of the word fox, conveying a bad or reproachful idea; and the pronoun cannot be charged with an ironical meaning. —  Personal Memoirs Of A Residence Of Thirty Years With The Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers
  • With a mixture of bravado and cunning which is, I think, very characteristic, she boldly told me it would smell of fish and had the nerve and astuteness to use Thomasina as a sort of near-the-truth explanation. —  Scales of Justice - Ngaio Marsh - Alleyn 18
  • What was it like to be alluded to as a cunning 'go-to' attorney in a Laura Lippman novel?
  • We've established her as a cunning, ambitious character and now that she's gotten what she wants, she has no great allegiance to the guy who got her there.
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

clever ·  wicked ·  shrewd ·  crafty ·  sly ·  ingenious ·  treacherous ·  stupid ·  unscrupulous
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, present participle of connen, to know, from Old English cunnan; see gnō- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English cunning, cunnyng, connyng, kunnyng, coning, conyng, etc., in form and use the verbal noun (not found in Anglo-Saxon) of cunnen, present indicative can, know (cf. Icelandic kunnandi, knowledge, from kunna, know), but in form and partly in sense as if from Anglo-Saxon cunnung, trial, test, from cunnian, try, test, later English cun, con. Cunning, while thus the verbal noun, associated with cunning, the present participle, of can, know, also includes historically the verbal noun of cun, con, which is now separated, as conning, in modern sense, the act of studying.
  2. from Middle English cunning, cunnyng, connyng, conyng, kunning, konnyng, konyng, etc., also in earlier (North.) form cunnand (after Icelandic, no Anglo-Saxon form *cunnande being found) (= Middle High German kunnend, künnent, German könnend (as adjective chiefly dial.) = Icelandic kunnandi, knowing, learning, cunning); properly present participle of Anglo-Saxon cunnan, Middle English cunnen (= Old High German kunnan, Middle High German kunnen, künnen, können, German können = Icelandic kunna), present indicative can, know, modern English can, be able: see can. Cunning1, a., is thus the orig. present participle of can (obsolete forms cun, con) in its orig. sense ‘know.’ Cf. cunning1, n.
  3. from Middle English connyng, coning, conyng, variant of cony, conig, etc., whence modern English cony, coney, q. v. The form cunning remains in modern use only as applied to the lamprey, and in the proper names Cunningham, Conyngham, Conington, etc. See cony.
 

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/ˈkənɪŋ/
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