cunning

comparative more cunning · superlative most cunning

1. Sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.

   They are resolved to be cunning; let others run the hazard of being sincere.

   1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London

   Synonyms: astute, artful, cautelous, crafty, devious, diabolical, foxlike, foxy

2. obsoleteSkillful, artful.

   a cunning workman

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 38:23

   2 more examples

   Esau was a cunning hunter.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 25:27

   Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white / Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on.

   c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]

3. obsoleteWrought with, or exhibiting, skill or ingenuity; ingenious.

   cunning work

   1 more example

   Over them Arachne high did lift / Her cunning web.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 29

4. MainecolloquialdatedCute, appealing.

   everybody gives something to the cunning little boy; his eyes are large and soft, and he wears a pointed hat, and tight breeches, and jacket

   1857, Barbara H. Channing, The Sisters Abroad, Or, an Italian Journey

   1 more example

   “I shan't mind that at all, I like the little house 'cause it's got a garden, and there's a cunning room with a three-cornered closet in it that I always wanted.[…]”

   1869–1870, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter XV, in An Old-Fashioned Girl, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1870, →OCLC

plural cunnings

1. countableuncountablePractical knowledge or experience; aptitude in performance; skill, proficiency; dexterity.

   indeed at this very moment he's slipped away with the utmost cunning into a form that's most perplexing to investigate.

   2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 236d

2. countableuncountablePractical skill employed in a secret or crafty manner; craft; artifice; skillful deceit; art or magic.

   Caliban: As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island.

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

3. countableuncountableThe disposition to employ one's skill in an artful manner; craftiness; guile; artifice; skill of being cunning, sly, conniving, or deceitful.
4. countableuncountableThe natural wit or instincts of an animal.

   the cunning of the fox or hare

5. countableobsoleteuncountableKnowledge; learning; special knowledge (sometimes implying occult or magical knowledge).

plural Cunnings

1. A surname.