cunning
cunning
/ˈkʌnɪŋ/
1 (disapproving) able to get what you want in a clever way, especially by tricking or cheating somebody
a cunning liar
He was as cunning as a fox.
That cunning old rogue is up to something, I'm sure.
2 clever and showing skill
It was a cunning piece of detective work.
cunning
/ˈkʌnɪŋ/
the ability to achieve something by tricking or cheating other people in a clever way
It took energy and cunning just to survive.
She used low cunning (= dishonest behaviour) to get what she wanted.
He had used cunning to get what he wanted.
She had great cunning and ruthlessness.
She managed him with great cunning.
He relied on his natural cunning to survive.
Collocations
adjective
verb + cunning
preposition
with cunning
Word Origin
Middle English: perhaps from Old Norse kunnandi ‘knowledge’, from kunna ‘know’ (related to can), or perhaps from Middle English cunne, an obsolete variant of can. The original sense was ‘(possessing) great academic knowledge or skill’ and had no implication of deceit; the sense ‘deceitfulness’ dates from late Middle English.
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