Both Uses of
cunning
in
A Prayer for Owen Meany
- She would remember, of course, those charmless bumper stickers from the Vietnam era—those cunning American flags and the red, white, and blue lettering of the name of our beloved nation.†
p. 388.9 *cunning = good at achieving goals through cleverness and deception
- Grandmother developed such contempt for Ethel—and for Ethel's inept replacements—that she plotted with considerable cunning to undermine what she regarded as the already woefully inadequate abilities of her serving women.†
p. 524.6
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) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
At one time, cunning was also used as a synonym for cute.