All 5 Uses of
cunning
in
The Scarlet Letter
- My conclusion was that he had no soul, no heart, no mind; nothing, as I have already said, but instincts; and yet, withal, so cunningly had the few materials of his character been put together that there was no painful perception of deficiency, but, on my part, an entire contentment with what I found in him.
Chpt Intr. *cunningly = cleverly
- A better book than I shall ever write was there; leaf after leaf presenting itself to me, just as it was written out by the reality of the flitting hour, and vanishing as fast as written, only because my brain wanted the insight, and my hand the cunning, to transcribe it.
Chpt Intr.cunning = cleverness
- Continually, and in a thousand other ways, did she feel the innumerable throbs of anguish that had been so cunningly contrived for her by the undying, the ever-active sentence of the Puritan tribunal.
Chpt 5cunningly = cleverly
- While Hester stood in that magic circle of ignominy, where the cunning cruelty of her sentence seemed to have fixed her for ever, the admirable preacher was looking down from the sacred pulpit upon an audience whose very inmost spirits had yielded to his control.
Chpt 22cunning = clever
- But he hid it cunningly from men, and walked among you with the mien of a spirit, mournful, because so pure in a sinful world!
Chpt 23cunningly = cleverly
Definition:
-
(cunning as in: a cunning thief) being good at achieving goals through cleverness -- and typically through deception as well (tricking others)