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crafty

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English crafty, crefty, craftiȝ, from Old English cræftiġ (“ingenious; skilful; crafty; cunning; virtuous; powerful”), from Proto-West Germanic *kraftag, *kraftīg, *kraftug, from Proto-Germanic *kraftugaz (“powerful”), equivalent to craft +‎ -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian kräftich, krääftig, West Frisian krêftich, Dutch krachtig, German Low German krachtig, German kräftig.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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crafty (comparative craftier, superlative craftiest)

  1. Skillful at deceiving others.
    Synonyms: cunning, wily
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 15:5:
      For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
    • 2001, Michael Palmer, Masters and Slaves: Revisioned Essays in Political Philosophy:
      Glaucon will play devil's advocate (358c-d, thereby showing himself craftier than Thrasymachus, who is so unsly as to declare himself a wolf, openly, before the sheep; […] )
    • 2012 March 22, Scott Tobias, “The Hunger Games”, in AV Club‎[1], archived from the original on 2012-03-24:
      Together, with the help of the drunkard Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), the only District 12 citizen ever to win the Games, they challenge tributes that range from sadistic volunteers to crafty kids like the pint-sized Rue (Amandla Stenberg) to the truly helpless and soon-to-be-dead.
    • 2023 August 6, Daniel Duane, “It’s August. Californians Are Still Skiing. Don’t Ask.”, in The New York Times‎[2]:
      Los Angeles would still be a piddling little town in a desert if it weren’t for Sierra snowmelt and city officials crafty enough to snooker eastern California farmers out of their water rights.
  2. Sneaky; surreptitious.
    I took a crafty look at his hand of cards while he was out of the room.
  3. Relating to, or characterized by, craft or skill; dexterous.
  4. Possessing dexterity; skilled; skillful.
    • 2011 September 15, Rachel Lee Harris, “The World Maker Faire in Queens Draws Inventors”, in The New York Times‎[3]:
      Make magazine, which celebrates “your right to tweak, hack and bend any technology to your own will,” has joined with the New York Hall of Science to gather more than 500 of the craftiest inventors, artists, technology enthusiasts, tinkerers and hobbyists to share their expertise.
    • 2013 September 3, Brit Morin, “13 ways to decorate with 3-D style”, in CNN‎[4]:
      Can you envision a future Christmas where you print all your gifts instead of shop for them? It could soon be reality in even the most tech-averse household, and it might just end up saving the craftier among us lots of time and money. Why buy a $50 vase when you can print one for $2?
  5. (dated) Magical or occult, or allegedly so.
    a crafty science

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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