What does cunning mean?

Definitions for cunning
ˈkʌn ɪŋcun·ning

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word cunning.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. craft, craftiness, cunning, foxiness, guile, slyness, wilinessnoun

    shrewdness as demonstrated by being skilled in deception

  2. cunningadjective

    crafty artfulness (especially in deception)

  3. cunning, cuteadjective

    attractive especially by means of smallness or prettiness or quaintness

    "a cute kid with pigtails"; "a cute little apartment"; "cunning kittens"; "a cunning baby"

  4. crafty, cunning, dodgy, foxy, guileful, knavish, slick, sly, tricksy, tricky, wilyadjective

    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 Dick"; "a wily old attorney"

  5. clever, cunning, ingeniousadjective

    showing inventiveness and skill

    "a clever gadget"; "the cunning maneuvers leading to his success"; "an ingenious solution to the problem"

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. CUNNINGadjective

    Etymology: from connan, Sax. konnen, Dut. to know.

    Schoolmasters will I keep within my house,
    Fit to instruct her youth. —— To cunning men
    I will be very kind; and liberal
    To mine own children, in good bringing up. William Shakespeare.

    I do present you with a man of mine,
    Cunning in musick and the mathematicks,
    To instruct her fully in those sciences. William Shakespeare.

    Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink it? Wherein neat and cleanly, but to carve a capon and eat it? Wherein cunning, but in craft? Wherein crafty, but in villainy? Wherein villainous, but in all things? Wherein worthy, but in nothing. William Shakespeare, Henry IV. p. i.

    Send me now therefore a man cunning to work in gold, and in silver, and that can skill to cut and to grave. 2 Chron. ii. 7.

    When Pedro does the lute command,
    She guides the cunning artist’s hand. Matthew Prior.

    And over them Arachne high did lift
    Her cunning web, and spread her subtile net,
    Enwrapped in foul smoak, and clouds more black than jet. Edmund Spenser, Fairy Queen, b. ii. cant. 7. stan. 28.

    And there beside of marble stone was built
    An altar, carv’d with cunning imagery;
    On which true Christians blood was often spilt,
    And holy martyrs often done to die. Edmund Spenser, Fairy Queen.

    Once put out thy light,
    Thou cunning’st pattern of excelling nature,
    I know not where is that Promethean heat
    That can thy light relumine. William Shakespeare, Othello.

    Men will leave truth and misery to such as love it; they are resolved to be cunning: let others run the hazard of being sincere. Robert South, Sermons.

    The more he protested, the more his father thought he dissembled, accounting his integrity to be but a cunning face of falshood. Philip Sidney, b. ii.

  2. Cunningnoun

    Etymology: cunninge, Saxon.

    What if I be not so much the poet, as even that miserable subject of his cunning, whereof you speak. Philip Sidney.

    We take cunning for a sinister or crooked wisdom; and certainly there is great difference between a cunning man and a wise man, not only in point of honesty, but in point of ability. Francis Bacon, Essay 23.

    These small wares and petty points of cunning are infinite, and it were a good deed to make a list of them; for nothing doth more hurt than that cunning men pass for wise. Francis Bacon.

ChatGPT

  1. cunning

    Cunning refers to the skill or ability to achieve one's goals through deceit or manipulation; exhibiting cleverness or slyness, particularly in deception or evasion. It can also refer to an action or plan that is clever or crafty, usually associated with trickery or manipulation.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Cunningadjective

    knowing; skillful; dexterous

  2. Cunningadjective

    wrought with, or exhibiting, skill or ingenuity; ingenious; curious; as, cunning work

  3. Cunningadjective

    crafty; sly; artful; designing; deceitful

  4. Cunningadjective

    pretty or pleasing; as, a cunning little boy

  5. Cunningadjective

    knowledge; art; skill; dexterity

  6. Cunningadjective

    the faculty or act of using stratagem to accomplish a purpose; fraudulent skill or dexterity; deceit; craft

  7. Etymology: [AS. cunnung trial, or Icel. kunnandi knowledge. See Cunning, a.]

Wikidata

  1. Cunning

    Cunning was a Japanese comedy duo from Fukuoka Prefecture. Cunning consisted of the pudgy, short-tempered Takanori Takeyama, and the rail-thin Tadayuki Nakashima. Known for his bursts of extreme anger, though said to be much more sedated off-camera, Takeyama is the boke of the unit. The tsukkomi, Nakashima, fell ill with leukemia in 2005 and took indefinite leave from work until his death from pneumonia on December 20, 2006, aged 35. The name of the duo, cunning, while meaning "sly" or "clever" in English, refers to the act of cheating on a test in Japanese.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Cunning

    kun′ing, adj. knowing: skilful: artful: crafty.—n. knowledge: skill: faculty of using stratagem to accomplish a purpose: artifice.—adv. Cunn′ingly.—n. Cunn′ingness, quality of being cunning: artfulness, slyness. [A.S. cunnan, to know.]

Editors Contribution

  1. cunning

    crafty


    Submitted by raulesparza6634 on September 23, 2019  

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. CUNNING

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Cunning is ranked #29986 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Cunning surname appeared 783 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Cunning.

    80% or 627 total occurrences were White.
    14.1% or 111 total occurrences were Black.
    3% or 24 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    1.9% or 15 total occurrences were of two or more races.

Matched Categories

How to pronounce cunning?

How to say cunning in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of cunning in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of cunning in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

Examples of cunning in a Sentence

  1. Metastasio:

    He who devises evil for another falls at last into his own pit, and the most cunning finds himself caught by what he had prepared for another. But virtue without guile, erect like the lofty palm, rises with greater vigour when it is oppressed.

  2. Jeremy Tillman:

    At first blush, individuals may find it reassuring that their data is being collected and processed by faceless corporations rather than their neighbor next door, however, there are two caveats to this logic, he added. First, while your neighbor may not be personally collecting your data, he may very well be the data analyst working at the company that does. In other words, there are distinct individuals within each company whose entire job is to analyze, evaluate, and interact with user data. Ten or more trackers that collect personal data were found on 21.3 percent of the sites covered by the study. CUNNING MALWARE SPREADS, GOES AFTER YOUR BANK ACCOUNT Google Analytics and Facebook Connect are some of the most prominent trackers, according to Ghostery. Google Analytics is in the top ten of the most widely used trackers based on the various services the Internet giant uses, including Google Analytics and Google Analytics Adsense. Facebook Connect is next with three. Google Analytics was found on almost half of all loaded pages at 46.4 percent, while Facebook Connect was on more than a fifth, coming in at 21.9 percent. Other companies that showed include comScore and Twitter. And Google Analytics’s not easy keeping tabs on these trackers since many are n’t installed by the website owner, according to Jeremy Tillman.

  3. Thomas Paine:

    Those words, temperate and moderate, are words either of political cowardice, or of cunning, or seduction. A thing, moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper, is always a virtue; but moderation in principle, is a species of vice.

  4. Chris Tucker:

    He was really smart and he was cunning at times, and his brother . . . was definitely cunning.

  5. Christen Kuikoua:

    In the eyes of a manipulator, Love becomes a weapon—a tool wielded with cunning intent to exploit vulnerability and sow the seeds of deception.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

cunning#10000#26623#100000

Translations for cunning

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

  • изкусен, коварен, лукав, сръчност, сръчен, лукавство, коварство, умениеBulgarian
  • murri, astutCatalan, Valencian
  • geschickt, gewandt, schlau, Gerissenheit, listig, gerissenGerman
  • ruzaEsperanto
  • astutoSpanish
  • مکار, حیله گری, رندPersian
  • taitava, kierous, kiero, taitavuus, ovela, oveluusFinnish
  • sournoiserie, fourberie, rusé, talentueuxFrench
  • glicIrish
  • seòltaScottish Gaelic
  • csalafinta, cseles, alattomos, ravasz, ügyes, dörzsöltHungarian
  • խորամանկArmenian
  • furberia, astuto, furbo, ingegnoso, furbiziaItalian
  • עַרמוּמִיHebrew
  • 狡猾, 巧妙Japanese
  • 교활한Korean
  • callidusLatin
  • geslepen, bedreven, list en bedrog, handig, doortrapt, sluwheid, leep, sluw, kundigheidDutch
  • snedighetNorwegian
  • sprytnyPolish
  • astuto, espertoPortuguese
  • priceput, viclean, șiret, capacitate, viclenieRomanian
  • хитрый, искусный, коварный, искусство, хитрость, пронырливый, умение, ловкий, лукавый, дошлый, коварство, умелыйRussian
  • chytrý, mazaný, prefíkanýSlovak
  • listig, slug, slughet, listSwedish
  • కపటము, నేర్పరి, తరహాTelugu
  • ฉลาดแกมโกงThai
  • хитрийUkrainian
  • khéo léoVietnamese

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"cunning." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/cunning>.

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