cunning
pronunciation
How to pronounce cunning in British English:
UK [ˈkʌnɪŋ]
How to pronounce cunning in American English:
US [ˈkʌnɪŋ]
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- Noun:
- shrewdness in deception
- shrewdness as demonstrated by being skilled in deception
- drafty artfulness (especially in deception)
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- Adjective:
- attractive especially by means of smallness or prettiness or quaintness
- marked by skill in deception
- showing inventiveness and skill
Word Origin
- cunning
- cunning: [13] Cunning did not always have its present-day negative connotations. At first it was a term of approval, meaning ‘learned’. It is connected in some way to the verb can, which originally meant ‘know’, although it is not altogether clear whether it is a direct use of the present participle of the English verb, or whether it was borrowed from the related Old Norse kunnandi, present participle of kunna ‘know’. Either way, it is a parallel formation to canny [16]. The sense ‘skilfully deceitful’ developed towards the end of the 16th century.=> canny
- cunning (adj.)
- early 14c., "learned, skillful," present participle of cunnen "to know" (see can (v.1)). Sense of "skillfully deceitful" is probably late 14c. As a noun from c. 1300. Related: Cunningly.
Antonym
Example
- 1. All you needed was luck and cunning and boldness .
- 2. Locals swap stories of cunning borrowers who buy second homes for a song before deliberately defaulting on their first mortgages .
- 3. Their communication is natural and direct , without subterfuge or cunning , and every movement has meaning .
- 4. It covers the months leading up to the execution of anne boleyn , whom cromwell frames with habitual cunning and casuistry .
- 5. One minister predicted that under the government 's cunning economic master plan , the country was set to become one of the world 's ten biggest economies within 15 years . First world here we come .