CUNNINGLY

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does cunningly mean? 

• CUNNINGLY (adverb)
  The adverb CUNNINGLY has 2 senses:

1. in an attractive manner

2. in an artful manner

  Familiarity information: CUNNINGLY used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CUNNINGLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In an attractive manner

Synonyms:

cunningly; cutely

Context example:

how cunningly the olive-green dress with its underskirt of rose-brocade fitted her perfect figure

Pertainym:

cunning (attractive especially by means of smallness or prettiness or quaintness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

In an artful manner

Synonyms:

artfully; craftily; cunningly; foxily; knavishly; slyly; trickily

Context example:

had ever circumstances conspired so cunningly?

Pertainym:

cunning (marked by skill in deception)

 Context examples 

It was not in the mate’s province to go out in the boats, and though I manœuvred cunningly for it, Wolf Larsen never granted me the privilege.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He did not rob openly, but stole secretly and cunningly, out of respect for club and fang.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

But the next morning Glumdalclitch, my little nurse, told me the whole matter, which she had cunningly picked out from her mother.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

A lath-and-plaster partition had been run across the passage six feet from the end, with a door cunningly concealed in it.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A gold-embroidered belt of knighthood encircled his loins, with his arms, five roses gules on a field argent, cunningly worked upon the clasp.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They reassured him countless times; but he could not believe them, and pried cunningly about the lazarette to see with his own eyes.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

But the Professor was fenced round with safeguards so cunningly devised that, do what I would, it seemed impossible to get evidence which would convict in a court of law.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She had a wonderful way too, when listening to what was said to her, or when waiting for an answer to what she had said herself, of pausing with her head cunningly on one side, and one eye turned up like a magpie's.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

There was no sound in the woods—not a leaf moved upon the trees, and all was peace around us—but we should have been warned by our first experience how cunningly and how patiently these creatures can watch and wait until their chance comes.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Spitz was the leader, likewise experienced, and while he could not always get at Buck, he growled sharp reproof now and again, or cunningly threw his weight in the traces to jerk Buck into the way he should go.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)