# cunning

Pronunciation: say "KUN-ing" /ˈkʌnɪŋ/

## Adjective

1. Clever in a sly, crafty way, especially at achieving things secretly or through trickery.
   - Simple: Clever in a sneaky way, and good at tricking others or acting in secret.
   - _The cunning old dealer let the buyers think they were getting a bargain._
   - _The scammers have become cunning enough to copy the look of real bank emails._
3. Cleverly designed or made; ingenious, as in a cunning device.
   - Simple: Made or done in a clever and skillful way, like a cunning little gadget.
   - _The garden was watered by a cunning system of pipes buried under the paths._
   - _Visitors admired the cunning carving on the chapel doors, where vines curled around tiny birds._

## Noun

2. Clever skill in tricking or deceiving others or in getting what one wants, in people or in animals.
   - Simple: Being clever in a sly way, good at tricking others to get what you want.
   - _He rose through the party ranks by cunning rather than talent._
   - _It took all her cunning to slip the documents past the border guards._
4. Practical knowledge and experience, or the skill and dexterity to perform a task well.
   - Simple: Skill and practical know-how, the ability to do a task well.
   - _Even after a decade away from the stage, the pianist's fingers had lost none of their cunning._
   - _Building a stone wall without mortar takes a mason's cunning as much as strength._

## Noun

5. Knowledge or learning, including special knowledge that sometimes suggests the occult or magic. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Knowledge or learning, sometimes secret knowledge of magic.

## Adjective

6. Cute and charming, attractive in a sweet or delightful way. *(dated, US)*
   - Simple: Sweet and cute, in a way that makes people like it.
   - _Aunt Ruth thought the doll's cunning little tea set was the sweetest thing in the shop._
   - _In her 1920s letters, my great-grandmother called the new puppy the most cunning thing she had seen._

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 3, 6** — Old English cunnan meant "to know how to, be able to," and its present participle cunnende became early Middle English cunninde and cunnand, which were later altered to cunning or kunning. It is equivalent to con + -ing. Cognates include Icelandic kunnandi ("cunning"), Scots cunnand ("cunning"), and German könnend ("able to do").
**Meanings 2, 4–5** — From Middle English cunning, kunnyng, partly from an Old English verbal noun *cunning, from cunnan (“to know how to, be able to”), and partly from Old English cunnung (“knowledge, trial, experience”), from cunnian (“to search into, try, test, explore, know”); equivalent to con + -ing.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/cunning (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).