Adjective

(en-adj)

Nimble with hands or body; skillful; adept.

* (Francis James Child) (collator), , 198: "Bonny John Seton",

The Highland men, they're clever men / At handling sword and shield,

Resourceful, sometimes to the point of cunning.

* 1890 , (Joseph Jacobs) (collator), '', ''English Fairy Tales ,

The youngest of the three strange lassies was called Molly Whuppie, and she was very clever . She noticed that before they went to bed the giant put straw ropes round her neck and her sisters', and round his own lassies' necks, he put gold chains. So Molly took care and did not fall asleep, but waited till she was sure every one was sleeping sound. Then she slipped out of the bed, and took the straw ropes off her own and her sisters' necks, and took the gold chains off the giant's lassies. She then put the straw ropes on the giant's lassies and the gold on herself and her sisters, and lay down.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.

Smart, intelligent, or witty; mentally quick or sharp.

* 1860 , (John Timbs), School-Days of Eminent Men , page 177,

has said of Bunyan: “though there were many clever men in England during the latter half of the seventeenth century, there were only two great creative minds. One of these minds produced ‘The Paradise Lost;’ the other, ‘The Pilgrim's Progress.’”

* 1912', (Fyodor Dostoevsky), (Constance Garnett) (translator), '''', Book V, Chapter 7: "It's Always Worth While Speaking to a ' Clever Man",

I would have sent Alyosha, but what use is Alyosha in a thing like that? I send you just because you are a clever fellow. Do you suppose I don't see that? You know nothing about timber, but you've got an eye.

* (rfdate), (Charles Kingsley), ,

Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever ; / Do noble things, not dream them all day long: / And so make life, death, and that vast forever / One grand, sweet song.

Showing inventiveness or originality; witty.

* 1816 , (Jane Austen), , Volume 1, Chapter 9,

Mr. Woodhouse was almost as much interested in the business as the girls, and tried very often to recollect something worth their putting in. "So many clever riddles as there used to be when he was young--he wondered he could not remember them! but he hoped he should in time." And it always ended in "Kitty, a fair but frozen maid."

* 1919 , , Chapter III,

I felt they expected me to say clever things, and I never could think of any till after the party was over.

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=April 10, author=Alistair Magowan, work=BBC Sport

, title= Aston Villa 1-0 Newcastle , passage=Just before the break Villa were denied a second goal when Bent had the ball in the net, although he was ruled offside after Jean Makoun's clever pass.}}

*{{quote-magazine, date=2014-04-11, author= Ron Charles

, volume=190, issue=18, page=37, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= David Grand’s ‘Mount Terminus’ , passage=The Rosenbloom Loop is a clever' little device, but it’s an even more ' clever symbol of the role that discipline plays in the creation of illusion: the persistence of vision that makes sequential still images appear to move.}}

Possessing magical abilities.

* 1904 , Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, Vol. XXXVIII, page 255,

When a clever man is out hunting and comes across the tracks of, say, a kangaroo, he follows them along and talks to the footprints all the time for the purpose of injecting magic into the animal which made them.

* 1947 , Oceania, Volumes 16-17, page 330,

Prior to this, the two women, who were “clever ,” and possessed a certain amount of magical “power,”.

* 1991 , John & Sue Erbacher, Aborigines of the Rainforest ,

Fred is the clever fellow or tribal doctor who practises with the Kuku-Yalanji people. The tribal doctor’s work includes curing sickness, finding out the causes of death, predicting the future and making and stopping rain.

(label) Fit; suitable; having propriety.

* (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)

'Twould sound more clever / To me and to my heirs forever.

(label) Well-shaped; handsome.

* (John Arbuthnot) (1667-1735)

The girl was a tight, clever wench as any was.

Good-natured; obliging.

Adjective

(er)

Cunning; clever, skilful.

* 1877 , George Hesekiel and Bayard Taylor, Bismarck his Authentic Biography , page 380:

In the end, however, it was a very pretty shot, right across the chasm; killed first fire, and the brute fell headlong into the brook [...].

Pleasant in sight or other senses; attractive, especially of women or children.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=17 citation , passage=The face which emerged was not reassuring. […]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls.}}

* 2010 , Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian , 4 Feb 2010:

To escape a violent beating from sailors to whom he has sold a non-functioning car, Jerry takes his stepfamily for a holiday in a trailer park miles away, where, miraculously, young Nick meets a very pretty young woman called Sheeni, played by Portia Doubleday.

Of objects or things: nice-looking, appealing.

* 2010 , Lia Leendertz, The Guardian , 13 Feb 2010:

'Petit Posy' brassicas [...] are a cross between kale and brussels sprouts, and are really very pretty with a mild, sweet taste.

* 1962 , "New Life for the Liberals", Time , 28 Sep 1962:

Damned by the Socialists as "traitors to the working class," its leaders were decried by Tories as "faceless peddlers of politics with a pretty little trinket for every taste."

(dated) Moderately large; considerable.

*, I.2.4.vii:

they flung all the goods in the house out at the windows into the street, or into the sea, as they supposed; thus they continued mad a pretty season […].

*

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.}}

* 2004 , "Because They're Worth it", Time , 26 Jan 04:

"What did you do to your hair?" The answer could be worth a pretty penny for L'Oreal.

(dated) Excellent, commendable, pleasing; fitting or proper (of actions, thoughts etc.).

* 1815 , (Jane Austen), Emma , Boston 1867, page 75:

Some people are surprised, I believe, that that the eldest was not [named after his father], but Isabella would have him named Henry, which I thought very pretty of her.

* 1919 , (Saki), ‘The Oversight’, The Toys of Peace :

‘This new fashion of introducing the candidate's children into an election contest is a pretty one,’ said Mrs. Panstreppon; ‘it takes away something from the acerbity of party warfare, and it makes an interesting experience for the children to look back on in after years.’

* 1926 , (Ernest Hemingway), , page 251:

"Oh, Jake." Brett said, "we could have had such a damned good time together." Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me. "Yes", I said. "Isn't it pretty to think so?"

(ironic) Awkward, unpleasant.

* 1931 , "Done to a Turn", Time , 26 Jan 1931:

His sadistic self-torturings finally landed him in a pretty mess: still completely married, practically sure he was in love with Tillie, he made dishonorable proposals of marriage to two other women.