crafty

CEFRC1

/ˈkɹæfti/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Clever at getting what you want, often in a dishonest way.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Relating to, or characterized by, craft or skill; dexterous.

Examples

  • Crafty is the Lord, but malicious He is not.

  • He is more crafty than wise.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
2

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Sneaky; surreptitious.

  2. Skillful at deceiving others.

  3. Possessing dexterity; skilled; skillful.

More examples

In context

  • The Germans are very crafty.

  • I took a crafty look at his hand of cards while he was out of the room.

  • a crafty science

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The blank fox managed to steal the chicken without making any noise.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

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.