What is the difference between cunning and vulpine?

As adjectives the difference between cunning and vulpine

is that cunning is sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour while vulpine is pertaining to a fox.

As a noun cunning

is (obsolete) 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)

Sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.

* South

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

(obsolete) Skillful, artful.

* Bible, Genesis xxv. 27

Esau was a cunning hunter.

* Bible, Exodus xxxviii. 23

a cunning workman

* Shakespeare

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

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

cunning work

* Spenser

Over them Arachne high did lift / Her cunning web.

(US, colloquial, rare) Cute, appealing.

a cunning little boy

(Bartlett)

Synonyms

* See also

Etymology 2

From (etyl) cunning, kunnyng, partially from (etyl) *.

Noun

(en noun)

(obsolete) Knowledge; learning; special knowledge (sometimes implying occult or magical knowledge).

Practical knowledge or experience; aptitude in performance; skill, proficiency; dexterity.

* 2005 , .

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

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.

the cunning of the fox or hare

Synonyms

* (l) * (l) * (l)

vulpine

English

Adjective

(en adjective)

Pertaining to a fox.

* 1910 , (Saki), ‘The Bag’, Reginald in Russia :

She dared not raise her eyes above the level of the tea-table, and she almost expected to see a spot of accusing vulpine blood drip down and stain the whiteness of the cloth.

Having the characteristics of a fox, foxlike; cunning.

Noun

(en noun)

Any of certain canids called foxes (including the true foxes, the arctic fox and the grey fox); distinguished from the canines, which are regarded as similar to the dog and wolf .

* 1980 , Michael Wilson Fox, The Soul of the Wolf , unnumbered page,

The family Canidae consists of two main subgroups, the vulpines (foxes) and the canines (wolves, coyotes, jackals, and dogs), and some intermediate “fox-dog” forms from South America.

A person considered vulpine (cunning); a fox.