Reynardian

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English

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Adjective

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Reynardian (not comparable)

  1. Of or pertaining to the folk character of Reynard the fox and his mannerisms; cunning.
    Synonyms: cunning, shrewd, sly fox, sly as a fox
    • 1888, The Harvard Advocate, page 130:
      Common sense compels us to believe that the whole affair was merely a ruse by which Yale, with true Reynardian craft, hoped to win the cup.
    • 1909, A beautiful rebel: a romance of Upper Canada in eighteen hundred and twelve, page 200:
      This was Mr. Fox's position ; but he was not a man to submit tamely to an adverse fate — even the fox when driven to the wall will show his teeth — and his human name-sake was not false to this Reynardian quality.
    • 2017, Moonglow : a novel, page 332:
      The Chabon kid had that Reynardian way of looking inattentive when he was measuring someone—in this case, my mother—to the millimeter.