Princeton's WordNet(3.00 / 3 votes)Rate this definition:

1. craft, craftiness, cunning, foxiness, guile, slyness, wiliness(noun)

   shrewdness as demonstrated by being skilled in deception

2. cunning(adj)

   crafty artfulness (especially in deception)

3. cunning, cute(adj)

   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, wily(adj)

   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, ingenious(adj)

   showing inventiveness and skill

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

Webster Dictionary(4.50 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Cunning(adj)

   knowing; skillful; dexterous

2. Cunning(adj)

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

3. Cunning(adj)

   crafty; sly; artful; designing; deceitful

4. Cunning(adj)

   pretty or pleasing; as, a cunning little boy

5. Cunning(adj)

   knowledge; art; skill; dexterity

6. Cunning(adj)

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

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

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

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(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

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.]

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

Sample Sentences & Example Usage

1. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio:

   He's been very cunning about it.

2. William Blake:

   The weak in courage is strong in cunning.

3. Lee Bates:

   He is a very cunning and dangerous individual.

4. Vikrant Parsai:

   A man one year elder to you is one cunning year elder to you.

5. Francis Bacon:

   Nothing is more damaging to a state than that cunning men pass for wise.

Images & Illustrations of cunning