Dictionary Definition
cunning adj
1 attractive especially by means of smallness or
prettiness or quaintness; "a cute kid with pigtails"; "a cute
little apartment"; "cunning kittens"; "a cunning baby" [syn:
cute]
2 marked by skill in deception; "cunning men
often pass for wise"; "deep political machinations"; "a foxy
scheme"; "a slick evasive answer"; "sly as a fox"; "tricky Dik"; "a
wily old attorney" [syn: crafty, dodgy, foxy, guileful, knavish, slick, sly, tricksy, tricky, wily]
3 showing inventiveness and skill; "a clever
gadget"; "the cunning maneuvers leading to his success"; "an
ingenious solution to the problem" [syn: clever, ingenious]
Noun
1 shrewdness in deception; "as cunning as a
fox"
2 shrewdness as demonstrated by being skilled in
deception [syn: craft,
craftiness, foxiness, guile, slyness, wiliness]
3 drafty artfulness (especially in
deception)
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -ʌnɪŋ
Adjective
Translations
sly
skillful
- Finnish: ovela, taitava
- Latin: callidus
- Russian: умелый
Noun
Translations
skill of being sly or deceitful
- Finnish: oveluus, kierous
- French: fourberie, sournoiserie
- German: Gerissenheit
- Italian: furberia , furbizia
- Norwegian: snedighet
- Russian: коварство
Extensive Definition
Cunning can refer to the following:
- The word "cunning" as it appears in Wiktionary
- A Japanese comedy group known as Cunning (owarai)
- The Cunning folk, a type of folk magic user
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Byzantine, Daedalian, Machiavellian, Machiavellianism,
Machiavellic,
ability, acute, address, adept, adeptness, adroit, adroitness, agility, airmanship, ambidexterity, ambidextrous, animal
cunning, apt, arch, art, artful, artfulness, artifice, artisanship, artistic, artistry, astute, authoritative, bad faith,
bravura, brilliance, brilliant, cagey, cageyness, calculating, canniness, canny, capability, capacity, chiseling, clean, clever, cleverness, collusive, command, competence, control, coordinated, coordination, covinous, crack, crackerjack, craft, craftiness, craftsmanship, crafty, crooked, cunning, cunningness, cute, daedal, dainty, deceit, deceitful, deceitfulness, deep, deep-laid, deft, deftness, delicate, designing, devious, deviousness, dexterity, dexterous, dexterousness, dextrous, dextrousness, diplomacy, diplomatic, dishonest, dishonesty, dissemblance, dissimulation, double, double-dealing,
double-faced, double-minded, double-tongued, doublehearted, doubleness, doubleness of
heart, duplicitous,
duplicity, efficiency, excellent, expert, expertise, expertness, facility, faithless, faithlessness, false, false-principled, falsehearted, falseheartedness,
falseness, fancy, feline, finagling, finesse, foxiness, foxy, fraudulent, furtive, furtiveness, good, goodish, grace, graceful, grip, guile, guileful, guilefulness, handiness, handy, horsemanship, hypocrisy, improbity, indirect, indirection, ingenious, ingeniousness, ingenuity, insidious, insidiousness, inventive, keen, know-how, knowing, low cunning, magisterial, marksmanship, masterful, masterly, mastership, mastery, mignon, neat, no mean, pawkiness, pawky, perfidious, politic, practical ability,
professional,
proficiency,
proficient, prowess, quick, quickness, quite some,
readiness, ready, resource, resourceful, resourcefulness, satanic
cunning, savoir-faire, savvy, scheming, seamanship, serpentine, sharp, sharpness, shiftiness, shifty, shrewd, shrewdness, skill, skillful, skillfulness, slick, slickness, slim, slippery, sly, slyness, smart, smooth, snaky, sneak attack, sneakiness, sneaky, some, sophistical, statesmanlike, stealthy, strategic, style, stylish, subtile, subtility, subtilty, subtle, subtlety, supple, surreptitious, surreptitiousness,
tact, tactful, tactfulness, tactical, technical brilliance,
technical mastery, technical skill, technique, the compleat, the
complete, timing,
treacherous,
treacherousness,
treachery, trickiness, trickish, tricksy, tricky, two-faced, two-facedness,
underhand, underhanded, underhandedness,
virtuosity, virtuoso, vulpine, wary, well-considered,
well-contrived, well-designed, well-devised, well-done,
well-invented, well-laid, well-planned, well-reasoned,
well-thought-out, well-weighed, wile, wiliness, wily, wit, wizardry, workmanlike, workmanship