shrewdly

S1H4R1E1W4D2L1Y4
/ˈʃɹuːdliː/

adverb

In a shrewd manner.

UncommonScrabble 18

Meanings

adverbshrewdly (comparative more shrewdly, superlative most shrewdly)

comparative more shrewdly · superlative most shrewdly

  1. In a shrewd manner.
    1 more example

    Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.

    1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0056

Synonyms & antonyms

adverbin a shrewd manner

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Middle Englishschrewed
  2. Proto-Indo-European*leyg-
  3. Proto-Germanic*līką
  4. Middle Englishschrewedly
  5. Englishshrewdly

Inherited from Middle English schrewedly (“wickedly, harshly”). By surface analysis, shrewd + -ly.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Czech chytře
  • chytřein a shrewd manner
Finnish ovelasti, terävästi
  • ovelastiin a shrewd manner
  • terävästiin a shrewd manner
French astucieusement, avec perspicacité
  • astucieusementin a shrewd manner
  • avec perspicacitéin a shrewd manner
German geschickt
  • geschicktin a shrewd manner
Italian scaltramente, astutamente
  • scaltramentein a shrewd manner
  • astutamentein a shrewd manner
Polish chytrze
  • chytrzein a shrewd manner
Portuguese astutamente
  • astutamentein a shrewd manner
Spanish astutamente, con perspicacia
  • astutamentein a shrewd manner
  • con perspicaciain a shrewd manner
Swedish klokt
  • kloktin a shrewd manner
Cite this entry
APA

shrewdly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shrewdly

MLA

“shrewdly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shrewdly. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shrewdly,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shrewdly.

Source: shrewdly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.