craftly
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more craftly
form: most craftly
Etymology: From Middle English crafftly, craftely, from Old English cræftlīc; equivalent to craft + -ly.
Senses: examples: text: Theſe ymages were made full curyouſly / With theyꝛ hoꝛſes of the ſtele ſo fyne / And eche of them in theyꝛ places ſundꝛy / About were ſette that clerely dyde ſhyne / Lyke Dyane clere in her ſpere celeſtyne / And vnder eche hoꝛſe there was full pꝛyuely / A grete whele made by craftly geometry
ref: 1506, Stephen hawes, “How graũde amoure came to the toure of chyualry”, in […] [T]he Passe Tyme of Pleasure, London: […] wynkyn de worde, published [1517], →OCLC, signature K.ij., verso; reprinted in The Works of Stephen Hawes: Facsimile Reproductions […] , Delmar, N.Y.: Scholars’ Facsimiles & Reprints, 1975, →OCLC:
text: All genuine lovers of pictorial art are earnestly exhorted to miss no available opportunity of visiting the Nevinson show at the Leicester Gallery. It is a wonderfully versatile genius Mr. Nevinson displays in this exhibition. There are all sorts of subjects, and all sorts of styles, but all of them interesting, every one of them craftly and distinguished.
ref: 1919 October 29, “[London Letter: Westminster, Tuesday Night.] Artist and Humourist.”, in The Devon and Exeter Daily Gazette, volume CXLVII, number 22,924, Exeter, →OCLC, page 4, column 2:
text: His protest included a carpe diem; seize the day before Saturn gobbles it up. It was only natural that, before William James and Bergson, he should have created means of expressing inwardness and, before Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, a model of the novel as a craftly document.
ref: 1963, Paul West, “The limits”, in The Modern Novel, London: Hutchinson of London, →OCLC, part one (Flux), page 11:
text: The L.D.S. leadership actively recruited potters; they were an essential part of their idealized, self-sustained Utopian communities. This ideology perpetuated the master-apprentice system in pottery production, while in the production centers, the craftly ideal was being replaced by modern, specialized production systems marked by mechanization, specialization, and deskilling.
ref: 1999 September, Timothy J. Scarlett, “Narcissus’s Mirror: Manufacture and Modernism in the American Great Basin—The Case of Pottery”, in International Journal of Historical Archaeology, volume 3, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Plenum Publishing Corporation, →DOI, →ISSN, section “The Production of Ideology”, page 171:
glosses: Skillful, expert; indicative of skill.
examples: text: Mo than a thouſande ways he hath / by his craftly fraudes to deceyue man.
ref: 1526, [William Bonde], “Howe this iourney generally begynneth in our baptyme / and of the obligacion made bytwene god and vs / and of certayne benefytes that god hath prouided for vs / and specially of the tree of lyfe / the blessed sacramente of the aultar”, in […] [T]he Pylgrimage of Perfection: […], London: […] Richarde Pynson […], →OCLC, first book, folio xvii, verso:
text: I call it ſinful, becauſe in my Judgement, all factious Jeſuited Men, that under the ſeveral Maſks or Cant-Terms of Perſecution, Liberty, Free Thinking, Hardſhip of the Teſt-Act, or the like hypocritical and craftly Pretences, are for diſturbing the Peace of the Nation, and bringing in the Pretender, are as corrupt in their Minds, and as rebellious in their Hearts, as the very Rebels that fought for the Pretdneer^([sic – meaning Pretender]) at Dumblain or Preſton.
ref: 1733, “Sect. III. I now come to the last Enquiry, viz. ‘Whether Atheistical, Prophane, Treacherous and Seditious Writers ought to be Punished?’”, in A Seasonable Preservative against the Wiles of Popery; or Modern Deism Real Jesuitism: Wherein Deism Is Try’d, Unmask’d, and Condemn’d, […], London: […] J. Wilford, […], →OCLC, pages 56–57:
text: But vain were words, entreaties vain, / The craftly witch secured my swain.
ref: 1921, Aristaenetus, translated by Richard Brinsley Sheridan and [Nathaniel Brassey] Halhed, “[From the Love Epistles of Aristaenetus. (358 A. D.)] The Sisters”, in T[homas] R[obert] Smith, editor, Poetica Erotica: A Collection of Rare and Curious Amatory Verse, volume 1, New York, N.Y.: […] [F]or subscribers only by Boni and Liveright, →OCLC, page 73:
glosses: Crafty, cunning.
Related terms: craftlike