How to Use cunning in a Sentence

cunning

1 of 2 adjective
Definition of cunningnext
Synonyms for cunningnext
  • She was cunning enough to fool me.
  • That’s Odysseus—the wiliness, that idea of the cunning trickster.
    — Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 26 June 2022
  • Who is clever and cunning and evil enough to take out the dictator of the Kang Dynasty?
    — Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Feb. 2023
  • Mitt Romney in one of the most cunning never- Trump moments.
    — Fox News, 9 June 2018
  • White is a cunning defender with quick feet, crafty hands and a knack for being in the right place at the right time.
    — Jeff McDonald, San Antonio Express-News, 13 Feb. 2021
  • It's so far removed that Catherine has to be stoic and cunning and wise all the time.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 11 Sep. 2022
  • Had the mountains been less steep or the enemy less cunning?
    — Washington Post, 26 Mar. 2021
  • All at once a seductress and a hag; a cunning shapeshifter and a gullible fool tricked into the service of the devil.
    — Kate Wheeling, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Oct. 2022
  • Quinn and Patricia haven’t shown the same cunning eye in Detroit.
    — Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press, 20 Mar. 2020
  • Mesereau made the bizarre decision to cast Constand as a cunning, greedy schemer.
    — Washington Post, 7 Sep. 2021
  • The cunning kitty was returned home, and the traveler was able to rebook his cat-free flight for the next day.
    — Laura L. Davis, USA TODAY, 23 Nov. 2022
  • First, there’s the cunning brevity of the chapters—a hundred and twenty-nine of them—that makes a long story zip by.
    — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 3 June 2018
  • Facebook games have started doing this as well, and in a much more cunning way.
    — James Hetherington, Newsweek, 21 Mar. 2018
  • In an attempt to right some wrongs, reformed bad girl Fiona reaches out to her cunning ex-boyfriend (Hii) to get the star back.
    — Kelsie Gibson, PEOPLE.com, 19 Nov. 2021
  • The Chiefs might be more cunning than dominant this postseason, but the results are the same.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 3 Feb. 2024
  • Remember the story about a cunning fox and a foolish goat?
    — Robert Krajewski, Forbes, 8 Apr. 2021
  • Welles certainly looked the part as the knight and troublemaker, but gave him a cunning edge too.
    — CNN, 14 Jan. 2022
  • And there's a side of him which is very cunning and very opportunistic and nimble.
    — CBS News, 7 Dec. 2022
  • This time the sexpot is brighter, more cunning (and named Wanda Gershwitz!).
    — Wesley Morris, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2020
  • In 1693, Asameni, an Akwamu royal, planned to seize control of the castle by way of a cunning ruse.
    — Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann, Quartz Africa, 13 July 2019
  • Meet your new neighbor, the coyote, and find out why these cunning canids are on the rise in North America—and beyond.
    — National Geographic, 23 June 2020
  • And now, for the fun part: Six cunning dogs, which are all either labradors or cocker spaniels, have been recruited.
    — Kelly Corbett, House Beautiful, 29 May 2020
  • Tap into your wilful, cunning side with the help of deep, dark Pluto and use it to your advantage.
    — Jodie Layne, Allure, 9 July 2017
  • Icelanders, meanwhile, have found a cunning way to get refunds.
    — The Economist, 12 Sep. 2019
  • This summer, a cunning bandit stalked the streets of Zehlendorf, a village near Berlin, in search of a favorite quarry: shoes.
    — Claire Bugos, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 Aug. 2020
  • Any animal can learn to be cute, but learning to be helpful takes cunning, guile, savvy.
    — Joe Queenan, WSJ, 20 Jan. 2022
  • Del Toro plays all of this with a seesaw cunning that keeps the audience agreeably off balance.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 26 Sep. 2023
  • The formula for their allure cuts a cunning line between candid and crude.
    — Richard Morgan, New York Times, 21 June 2018
  • Other satellites make a cunning use of gravity to estimate the snow and ice mass.
    — Mejs Hasan, WIRED, 13 June 2018
  • The former president and his allies had luck and a cunning strategy on their side.
    — Maggie Haberman, New York Times, 25 Jan. 2024
Advertisement

cunning

2 of 2 noun
  • He may be a fraud, but you have to admire his cunning.
  • After all, who else but Luther has the cunning to catch the guy?
    — Vulture, 21 Dec. 2022
  • Vladimir Putin, the cunning despot and former KGB agent,...
    — Gregg Opelka, WSJ, 7 May 2019
  • Few fish can match the blazing speed of a mako, the sheer power of a great white, or the great cunning of a tiger shark.
    — William McKeever, BostonGlobe.com, 3 July 2019
  • And knowing the cunning of Taylor Swift, there may be a chance for Alwyn to jump on a track in the future.
    — Natalie Morin, refinery29.com, 24 Aug. 2019
  • Most likely: his cunning will win out, at least over Cole.
    — Omar L. Gallaga, Arkansas Online, 1 Nov. 2022
  • These bikes are not public, but private, and they are equipped with cunning locks.
    — The Economist, 16 Dec. 2017
  • Their luck, joined with their cunning, provides the answer.
    — Tribune News Service, cleveland, 29 Oct. 2019
  • But the son was already known for using cunning means to reach saintly ends.
    — Dan Zak, Washington Post, 17 Mar. 2021
  • And, with the cunning that comes from millennia of evolution, the virus exploits all of our most human habits.
    — Anchorage Daily News, 24 Sep. 2020
  • Yet there is no cunning or malice to Miranda’s approach to The Circle.
    — Ariana Romero, refinery29.com, 3 Jan. 2020
  • He could see no change, save that in the eyes there was a look of cunning and in the mouth the curved wrinkle of the hypocrite.
    — Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
  • The conceptual cunning of Rivera Garza’s stories cannot account for the passion that warms them.
    — Merve Emre, The New Yorker, 4 July 2022
  • Jamie’s reward for his legal cunning is an awkward-as-hell car ride back to the ranch with Beth, which ends in another assault.
    — Josh St. Clair, Men's Health, 27 Nov. 2022
  • If there were a reliable form of Taste which could be acquired through cash or cunning, someone would have bottled and branded it by now.
    — A-LIST, 2 Oct. 2017
  • To go in knowing little or nothing about the play may be the purest way to experience its dramatic cunning.
    — Naveen Kumar, Variety, 17 Apr. 2022
  • But the country’s socialist president, Nicolás Maduro, has a cunning plan.
    — The Economist, 21 Sep. 2017
  • Some of the leaders back then were hucksters, and some of the believers were easy marks, but the movement cannot be dismissed merely as a collision of the cunning and the credulous.
    — Casey Cep, The New Yorker, 24 May 2021
  • Finally the nobleman, impressed with the rabbi’s cunning, turned to leave.
    — Caren Schnur Neile, Sun Sentinel, 3 Oct. 2022
  • After just two episodes, Nick has established himself as the coach to watch this season by playing the game with just the right mix of cunning and sincerity.
    — Sabienna Bowman, refinery29.com, 2 Mar. 2020
  • If talks fail, Bennett could appear to have been outsmarted by Putin's cunning and could be blamed for the conflict having worsened.
    — Tia Goldenberg, ajc, 6 Mar. 2022
  • Villanelle’s hiding-in-plain-sight proposition is one that, for the fashion-obsessed among us, makes the cunning show all the more captivating.
    — Steff Yotka, Vogue, 27 Apr. 2018
  • The fiction in this sci-fi was Ava: a truly convincing humanoid, powered by A.I., with all the cunning and guile of a Machiavellian human.
    — Kevin Dupzyk, Popular Mechanics, 16 Jan. 2019
  • Maradona was the platonic ideal of a pibe, all virtuoso skill and impetuous cunning.
    — Rory Smith, New York Times, 25 Nov. 2020
  • There is immense reward in hauling your own body to the top of a wall using nothing but flexibility, cunning, and the strength of a couple of fingers.
    — Jacqueline Detwiler-George, Popular Mechanics, 16 Mar. 2021
  • As Georges’s compulsion to film his exploits grows, so does his cunning, the camera an excuse to fully indulge his psychosis.
    — Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2020
  • Italy, a team in full bloom with unmatched class and, in the waning minutes, old-school cunning, had knocked Belgium’s golden generation out of the tournament.
    — Samindra Kunti, Forbes, 4 July 2021
  • Behind the cleverness and charm, honed at first under the tuition of Jesuit priests, always lurked ruthlessness as well as cunning.
    — The Economist, 7 Sep. 2019
  • Admirers of autocracy around the world would have lauded Putin’s ruthlessness and cunning.
    — Hal Brands, Foreign Affairs, 14 Feb. 2023
  • Shiv’s real cunning is at play at the memorial service when her smooth demeanor wins her crucial uninterrupted minutes with the presidential hopeful Mencken.
    — Shelly Tan, Washington Post, 26 May 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cunning.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: