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Imprudent vs Cunning - What's the difference?

imprudent | cunning |

As adjectives the difference between imprudent and cunning

is that imprudent is not prudent; wanting in prudence or discretion; indiscreet; injudicious; not attentive to consequence; improper while cunning is sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.

As a noun cunning is

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

imprudent

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Not prudent; wanting in prudence or discretion; indiscreet; injudicious; not attentive to consequence; improper.
  • * 1711 , , The Life and Acts of Matthew Parker , volume 1.
    • Here Her Majesty took a great dislike at the imprudent behavior of many of the Ministers and Readers.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1853 , author=Mary Elizabeth Braddon , title=Phantom Fortune , chapter=3 citation , passage=‘It was a most 'imprudent thing to go up Helvellyn in such weather,’ said Fräulein Müller, shaking her head gloomily as she ate her fish.}}
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1864 , author=Jules Verne , title=Journey to the Interior of the Earth , chapter=3 citation , passage=My uncle, falling back into his absorbing contemplations, had already forgotten my imprudent' words. I merely say ' imprudent , for the great mind of so learned a man of course had no place for love affairs, and happily the grand business of the document gained me the victory.}}

    Synonyms

    * indiscreet, injudicious, incautious, ill-advised, unwise, heedless, careless, rash, negligent

    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)