Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Cunning

Cun′ning (kŭn′nĭng), a. [AS. cunnan to know, to be able. See 1st Con, Can.] 1. Knowing; skillful; dexterous. "A cunning workman." Ex. xxxviii. 23.

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

Esau was a cunning hunter. Gen xxv. 27.

2. Wrought with, or exhibiting, skill or ingenuity; ingenious; curious; as, cunning work.

Over them Arachne high did lift

Her cunning web. Spenser.

3. Crafty; sly; artful; designing; deceitful.

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

4. Pretty or pleasing; as, a cunning little boy. [Colloq. U.S.] Barlett.

Syn. — Cunning, Artful, Sly, Wily, Crafty. — These epithets agree in expressing an aptitude for attaining some end by peculiar and secret means. Cunning is usually low; as, a cunning trick. Artful is more ingenious and inventive; as, an artful device. Sly implies a turn for what is double or concealed; as, sly humor; a sly evasion. Crafty denotes a talent for dexterously deceiving; as, a crafty manager. Wily describes a talent for the use of stratagems; as, a wily politician. "Acunning man often shows his dexterity in simply concealing. An artful man goes further, and exerts his ingenuity in misleading. A crafty man mingles cunning with art, and so shapes his actions as to lull suspicions. The young may be cunning, but the experienced only can be crafty. Slyness is a vulgar kind of cunning; the sly man goes cautiously and silently to work. Wiliness is a species of cunning or craft applicable only to cases of attack and defense." Crabb.

Cun′ning, n. [AS. cunnung trial, or Icel. kunnandi knowledge. See Cunning, a.] 1. Knowledge; art; skill; dexterity. [Archaic]

Let my right hand forget her cunning. Ps. cxxxvii. 5.

A carpenter's desert Stands more in cunning than in power. Chapman.

2. The faculty or act of using stratagem to accomplish a purpose; fraudulent skill or dexterity; deceit; craft.

Discourage cunning in a child; cunning is the ape of wisdom. Locke.

We take cunning for a sinister or crooked wisdom. Bacon.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.