• IPA: /ˈkʌnɪŋ/

cunning

1. Sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.

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

2. (obsolete) Skillful, artful.
   • Bible, Genesis xxv. 27

     Esau was a cunning hunter.

   • Bible, Exodus xxxviii. 23

     a cunning workman

   • c. 1601–1602, William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or VVhat You VVill”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene v]:

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

3. (obsolete) Wrought with, or exhibiting, skill or ingenuity; ingenious.

   cunning work

   • Over them Arachne high did lift / Her cunning web.

4. (US, colloquial, dated, New England) Cute, appealing.

   a cunning little boy

• See also Thesaurus:wily

• French: rusé
• German: gerissen, schlau, listig
• Italian: furbo, astuto
• Portuguese: astuto, esperto, matreiro
• Russian: хи́трый
• Spanish: astuto, pillo, listo

• French: talentueux
• German: geschickt, gewandt
• Italian: ingegnoso
• Portuguese: astuto, esperto
• Russian: уме́лый
• Spanish: astuto

cunning

1. Practical knowledge or experience; aptitude in performance; skill, proficiency; dexterity.
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 236d.

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

2. Practical skill employed in a secret or crafty manner; craft; artifice; skillful deceit; art or magic.
   • circa 1610-11 William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act III scene ii:

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

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

   the cunning of the fox or hare

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

• craftiness
• foxship
• list

• French: fourberie, sournoiserie
• German: Gerissenheit
• Italian: furberia, furbizia
• Portuguese: ardil, astúcia, esperteza
• Russian: кова́рство

• Portuguese: habilidade
• Russian: уме́ние

1. Surname