cunning
adjective
[ ˈkʌnɪŋ ]
• having or showing skill in achieving one's ends by deceit or evasion.
• "a cunning look came into his eyes"
Similar:
crafty,
wily,
artful,
guileful,
devious,
sly,
knowing,
scheming,
designing,
tricky,
slippery,
slick,
manipulative,
Machiavellian,
deceitful,
deceptive,
duplicitous,
Janus-faced,
shrewd,
astute,
clever,
canny,
sharp,
sharp-witted,
skilful,
ingenious,
resourceful,
inventive,
imaginative,
deft,
adroit,
dexterous,
foxy,
savvy,
fiendish,
sneaky,
fly,
pawky,
slim,
subtle,
vulpine,
carny,
• attractive or quaint.
• "Baby will look too cunning for anything in that pink print"
cunning
noun
• skill in achieving one's ends by deceit.
• "a statesman to whom cunning had come as second nature"
Similar:
guile,
craftiness,
wiliness,
artfulness,
deviousness,
slyness,
trickery,
trickiness,
duplicity,
deceitfulness,
deceit,
chicanery,
shrewdness,
astuteness,
cleverness,
canniness,
sharpness,
ingenuity,
resourcefulness,
inventiveness,
imagination,
deftness,
adroitness,
dexterity,
dexterousness,
wiles,
ploys,
schemes,
stratagems,
tactics,
manoeuvres,
subterfuges,
tricks,
ruses,
foxiness,
Origin:
Middle English: perhaps from Old Norse kunnandi ‘knowledge’, from kunna ‘know’ (related to can1), or perhaps from Middle English cunne, an obsolete variant of can1. The original sense was ‘(possessing) erudition or skill’ and had no implication of deceit; the sense ‘deceitfulness’ dates from late Middle English.
