Cunning vs Cautelous - What's the difference?
cunning | cautelous |
Sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.
* South
(obsolete) Skillful, artful.
* Bible, Genesis xxv. 27
* Bible, Exodus xxxviii. 23
* Shakespeare
(obsolete) Wrought with, or exibiting, skill or ingenuity; ingenious.
* Spenser
(US, colloquial, rare) Cute, appealing.
(obsolete) Knowledge; learning; special knowledge (sometimes implying occult or magical knowledge).
Practical knowledge or experience; aptitude in performance; skill, proficiency; dexterity.
* 2005 , .
Practical skill employed in a secret or crafty manner; craft; artifice; skillful deceit.
The disposition to employ one's skill in an artful manner; craftiness; guile; artifice; skill of being cunning, sly, conniving, or deceitful.
The natural wit or instincts of an animal.
(obsolete) Skillful in trickery or deception; cunning, wily.
* 1644 , (John Milton), Aeropagitica :
(obsolete) Cautious, careful.
* 1624 , , Generall Historie , in Kupperman 1988, p. 140:
In obsolete terms the difference between cunning and cautelous
is that cunning is knowledge; learning; special knowledge (sometimes implying occult or magical knowledge) while cautelous is cautious, careful.As a noun cunning
is knowledge; learning; special knowledge (sometimes implying occult or magical knowledge).cunning
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) cunning, kunning, konnyng, alteration of earlier (etyl) cunninde, kunnende, cunnand, from (etyl) cunnende, present participle of . More at (l), (l).Adjective
(en adjective)- They are resolved to be cunning ; let others run the hazard of being sincere.
- 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.
- cunning work
- Over them Arachne high did lift / Her cunning web.
- a cunning little boy
- (Bartlett)
Synonyms
* See alsoEtymology 2
From (etyl) cunning, kunnyng, partially from (etyl) *.Noun
(en noun)- indeed at this very moment he's slipped away with the utmost cunning into a form that's most perplexing to investigate.
- the cunning of the fox or hare
Synonyms
* (l) * (l) * (l)cautelous
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- I am not able to unfold, how this cautelous enterprise of licencing can be exempted from the number of vain and impossible attempts.
- Some are of disposition fearefull, some bold, most cautelous , all Savage.