Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Cleverness; smartness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun cleverness

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Formed irregularly as clever +‎ -ality on the pattern of comicality and other such terms.

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Examples

  • The signal merit of his writings is the exact opposite of "cleverality"; it is that he always means exactly what he says.

    Dr. Johnson and His Circle John Cann Bailey 1897

  • Whoever wants "cleverality," whoever wants what Mr. Shaw and Mr. Chesterton supply so brilliantly and abundantly to the present generation, had best leave Johnson alone.

    Dr. Johnson and His Circle John Cann Bailey 1897

  • "Now you don't know the meaning of clever," she said; "Sheridan might be clever -- scamps often are, but Johnson hadn't a spark of 'cleverality' in him."

    Dr. Johnson and His Circle John Cann Bailey 1897

  • Everybody that had the smallest gumption prophesied that he would be a real clever one; nor could we grudge that we took pains in his rearing -- he having been like a sucking-turkey, or a hot-house plant from far away, delicate in the constitution -- when we saw that the debt was likely to be paid with bank-interest, and that, by his uncommon cleverality, the callant was to be a credit to our family.

    The Life of Mansie Wauch tailor in Dalkeith David Macbeth Moir 1824

  • Everybody that had the smallest gumption prophesied that he would be a real clever one; nor could we grudge that we took pains in his rearing -- he having been like a sucking-turkey, or a hot-house plant from far away, delicate in the constitution -- when we saw that the debt was likely to be paid with bank-interest, and that, by his uncommon cleverality, the callant was to be a credit to our family.

    The Life of Mansie Wauch Tailor in Dalkeith, written by himself David Macbeth Moir 1824

  • _clever_, Sheridan might be clever; yes, Sheridan was clever, -- scamps often are; but Johnson hadn't a spark of cleverality in him. '

    Life of Charlotte Brontë — Volume 1 Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell 1837

  • ‘Now you don’t know the meaning of CLEVER, Sheridan might be clever; yes, Sheridan was clever, — scamps often are; but Johnson hadn’t a spark of cleverality in him.’

    The Life of Charlotte Bronte 2002

  • "Duncan was not so bowed in the intellect as ye imagine, and had some spice of cleverality about his queer manoeuvres.

    The Life of Mansie Wauch tailor in Dalkeith David Macbeth Moir 1824

  • "Duncan was not so bowed in the intellect as ye imagine, and had some spice of cleverality about his queer manoeuvres.

    The Life of Mansie Wauch Tailor in Dalkeith, written by himself David Macbeth Moir 1824

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