cunning
noun/ˈkʌnɪŋ/
/ˈkʌnɪŋ/
[uncountable]- the ability to achieve something by tricking or cheating other people in a clever way synonym craftiness
- It took energy and cunning just to survive.
- She used low cunning (= dishonest behaviour) to get what she wanted.
Extra ExamplesTopics Personal qualitiesc2- He had used cunning to get what he wanted.
- She had great cunning and ruthlessness.
- She managed him with great cunning.
- He relied on his natural cunning to survive.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- great
- devious
- low
- …
- have
- show
- use
- …
- with cunning
Word OriginMiddle English: perhaps from Old Norse kunnandi ‘knowledge’, from kunna ‘know’ (related to can), or perhaps from Middle English cunne, an obsolete variant of can. The original sense was ‘(possessing) great academic knowledge or skill’ and had no implication of deceit; the sense ‘deceitfulness’ dates from late Middle English.
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