All 4 Uses
cunning
in
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
(Auto-generated)
- But it was (as I received it, and others whose judgments in such matters cried in the top of mine) an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning.†
p. 109.9 *cunning = good at achieving goals through cleverness and deception
- —Hum, I have heard
That guilty creatures sitting at a play
Have, by the very cunning of the scene,
Been struck so to the soul that presently
They have proclaimed their malefactions;
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ.†p. 119.3 - This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in.†p. 179.6 - So shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,
Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters,
Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall'n on th' inventors' heads.†p. 285.7
Definitions:
-
(1)
(cunning as in: a cunning thief) being good at achieving goals through cleverness -- and typically through deception as well (tricking others)
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) At one time, cunning was also used as a synonym for cute.