crafty

English

Etymology

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

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹæfti/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɑːfti/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æfti

Adjective

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; […] )

   • 22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Games[1]

     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.

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^[2]:

     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.

5. (dated) Magical or occult, or allegedly so.

   a crafty science

Synonyms

• (skillful): See also Thesaurus:skilled
• (cunning, wily): See also Thesaurus:wily

Derived terms

• craftily
• craftiness
• outcrafty
• uncrafty

 

Translations

dexterous

• Bulgarian: сръчен (bg) (srǎčen)
• Italian: ingegnoso (it), destro (it), fantasioso (it)
• Russian: ло́вкий (ru) (lóvkij)
• Spanish: diestro (es)
• Turkish: becerikli (tr)

skillful

• Bulgarian: умел (bg) (umel)
• Finnish: taitava (fi), kyvykäs (fi), osaava (fi), kykenevä (fi)
• German: geschickt (de)
• Russian: уме́лый (ru) (umélyj), иску́сный (ru) (iskúsnyj)
• Spanish: mañoso (es), habiloso (es)
• Turkish: becerikli (tr)

cunning, wily

• Bulgarian: хитър (bg) (hitǎr), лукав (bg) (lukav)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 狡猾 (zh) (jiǎohuá)

• Finnish: ovela (fi), viekas (fi)
• French: rusé (fr), madré (fr)
• German: gerissen (de), schlau (de), listig (de)
• Gothic: 𐌻𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌴𐌹𐌲𐍃 (listeigs)
• Greek:

  Ancient: πανοῦργος (panoûrgos), κίδαφος (kídaphos)

• Irish: cleasach
• Italian: furbo (it)
• Japanese: 狡猾な (ja) (こうかつな, kōkatsu na)
• Latin: dolōsus, vafer, callidus
• Maori: mūrere, nanakia, rauhanga
• Old English: ġēaplīċ
• Ottoman Turkish: قورناز (kurnaz), آصمق (asmak)
• Persian: حیله‌گر (hile-gar)
• Polish: chytry (pl), przebiegły (pl), podstępny (pl)
• Russian: хи́трый (ru) (xítryj), кова́рный (ru) (kovárnyj)
• Sanskrit: धूर्त (sa) (dhūrta)
• Scottish Gaelic: seòlta
• Spanish: astuto (es), pillo (es), listo (es), pícaro (es)
• Turkish: kurnaz (tr), cingöz (tr), açıkgöz (tr), uyanık (tr)