All 5 Uses of
cunning
in
Gulliver's Travels
- …as a greater crime than theft, and therefore seldom fail to punish it with death; for they allege, that care and vigilance, with a very common understanding, may preserve a man's goods from thieves, but honesty has no defence against superior cunning; and, since it is necessary that there should be a perpetual intercourse of buying and selling, and dealing upon credit, where fraud is permitted and connived at, or has no law to punish it, the honest dealer is always undone, and the…†
Chpt 1
- But the next morning Glumdalclitch, my little nurse, told me the whole matter, which she had cunningly picked out from her mother.†
Chpt 2 *
- He was extremely curious to know "from what part of the country I came, and how I was taught to imitate a rational creature; because the Yahoos (whom he saw I exactly resembled in my head, hands, and face, that were only visible), with some appearance of cunning, and the strongest disposition to mischief, were observed to be the most unteachable of all brutes."†
Chpt 4
- He said, "whoever understood the nature of Yahoos, might easily believe it possible for so vile an animal to be capable of every action I had named, if their strength and cunning equalled their malice.†
Chpt 4
- Yet I am of opinion, this defect arises chiefly from a perverse, restive disposition; for they are cunning, malicious, treacherous, and revengeful.†
Chpt 4
Definition:
-
(cunning as in: a cunning thief) being good at achieving goals through cleverness -- and typically through deception as well (tricking others)