cunning

adj

1. Sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.

   “They are resolved to be cunning; let others run the hazard of being sincere.”

2. (obsolete)Skillful, artful.

   “Esau was a cunning hunter.”

   “a cunning workman”

   “Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white / Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on.”

3. (obsolete)Wrought with, or exhibiting, skill or ingenuity; ingenious.

   “cunning work”

   “Over them Arachne high did lift / Her cunning web.”

4. (Maine, colloquial, dated)Cute, appealing.

   “everybody gives something to the cunning little boy; his eyes are large and soft, and he wears a pointed hat, and tight breeches, and jacket”

   ““I shan't mind that at all, I like the little house 'cause it's got a garden, and there's a cunning room with a three-cornered closet in it that I always wanted.[…]””

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Practical knowledge or experience; aptitude in performance; skill, proficiency; dexterity.

   “indeed at this very moment he's slipped away with the utmost cunning into a form that's most perplexing to investigate.”

2. (countable, uncountable)Practical skill employed in a secret or crafty manner; craft; artifice; skillful deceit; art or magic.

   “Caliban: As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island.”

3. (countable, uncountable)The disposition to employ one's skill in an artful manner; craftiness; guile; artifice; skill of being cunning, sly, conniving, or deceitful.
4. (countable, uncountable)The natural wit or instincts of an animal.

   “the cunning of the fox or hare”

5. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Knowledge; learning; special knowledge (sometimes implying occult or magical knowledge).