cunning

Definitions


[ˈkʌnɪŋ], (Adjective)

Definitions:
- having or showing skill in achieving one's ends by deceit or evasion
(e.g: a cunning look came into his eyes)

- attractive or quaint
(e.g: Baby will look too cunning for anything in that pink print)


Phrases:

Origin:
Middle 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) erudition or skill’ and had no implication of deceit; the sense ‘deceitfulness’ dates from late Middle English


[ˈkʌnɪŋ], (Noun)

Definitions:
- skill in achieving one's ends by deceit
(e.g: a statesman to whom cunning had come as second nature)


Phrases:

Origin:
Middle 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) erudition or skill’ and had no implication of deceit; the sense ‘deceitfulness’ dates from late Middle English




definition by Oxford Dictionaries