clever
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: anthropology
human-sciences
sciences
Etymology: From East Anglian dialectal English cliver (“expert at seizing”), from Middle English cliver (“tenacious”).
* perhaps from Old English *clifer, clibbor (“clinging”);
* or perhaps from Dutch, Low German, or East/Saterland Frisian (compare kluftich (“clever, prudent”), probably derived from Proto-West Germanic *kleuban (“to cleave, split”));
* or dialectal Norwegian klover (“ready, skillful”), itself borrowed from Middle Low German klever, related to kleven (“to stick”), from Old Saxon klibōn, from Proto-West Germanic *klibēn, related to the Old English word above;
* possibly influenced by Old English clifer (“claw, hand”) (compare clawian (“to claw”)).
Related to cleave. Perhaps influenced by Welsh celfydd (“talented, dexterous, expert”).
Compare typologically Czech chytrý, Russian хи́трый (xítryj) (akin to хвата́ть (xvatátʹ)), also note схва́тывать на лету́ (sxvátyvatʹ na letú).
Inflected forms:
form: cleverer
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: more clever
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: cleverest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: most clever
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: Nimble with hands or body; dexterous; skillful; adept.
pos: adj
examples: My dad is quite clever with his hands, especially at carpentry.
a. 1898, Francis James Child (collator), Child's Ballads, 198: "Bonny John Seton",
The Highland men, they're clever men
At handling sword and shield,
gloss: Quick to understand, learn, and devise or apply ideas; intelligent.
pos: adj
examples: The cleverest and most prolific inventors, such as Reiner Knizia (who lives in England) are nerdy superstars. Euro (also “German-style”) games must not be confused with “Ameritrash” games, which generally involve high drama and employ plastic pieces, though arguing over what the difference is seems to be gamers' second-favourite pastime.
gloss: Mentally quick and resourceful; skilled at achieving what one wants in a mentally agile and inventive way.
pos: adj
examples: clever like a fox
With a clever lawyer, she could easily be acquitted.
1890, Joseph Jacobs (collator), Molly Whuppie, 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.
gloss: Smart, intelligent, or witty; mentally quick or sharp.
pos: adj
examples: And so make life, death, and that vast forever / One grand, sweet song.
Lord Macaulay 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), The Brothers Karamazov, 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.
gloss: Sane; in one's right mind.
pos: adj
tags: archaic
examples: He was not clever, poor fellow, he did not know what questions to ask; he asked the same questions again and again. He continued to show his own troubled thoughts, and the vague dread in his mind, […]
gloss: Showing mental quickness and resourcefulness.
pos: adj
examples: This is a simple but clever trick to solve the problem.
Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.[…]Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising colossal bonuses to sitting chief executives if they meet ambitious growth targets. That model is still prevalent today.
gloss: Showing inventiveness or originality; witty.
pos: adj
examples: 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."
I felt they expected me to say clever things, and I never could think of any till after the party was over.
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.
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.
gloss: Fit and healthy; free from fatigue or illness.
pos: adj
tags: UK
colloquial
examples: But at that moment I knew it was all over for me, I had never thought that this day would come, but it had and I was not feeling too clever. In fact I had to escape to a nearby toilet to be sick.
Right, and no, because the solicitor has told her that Walter's legs didn't look too clever, which, apparently, everyone's putting down to a fall, thankfully.
gloss: Good-natured; obliging.
pos: adj
tags: US
dated
gloss: Possessing magical abilities.
pos: adj
examples: 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.
Prior to this, the two women, who were “clever,” and possessed a certain amount of magical “power,”[…].
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.
gloss: Fit; suitable; having propriety.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: 18th c, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope (later lines), Imitation of Horace, 1852, Charles Knight (collator), Half-hours with the Best Authors, Volume 4, page 188,
I can't but think 'twould sound more clever,
To me and to my heirs forever.
gloss: Well-shaped; handsome.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: Tho' the Girl vvas a tight, clever VVench as any vvas, and thro' her pale Looks, you might diſcern Spirit and Vivacity, vvhich made her not indeed a perfect Beauty, but ſomething that vvas agreeable.
Antonyms: dull
stupid
ineffectual
naive
clumsy
antonym(s) of
Derived words: as clever as a cartload of monkeys
box clever
cleverality
clever arse
clever-clever
clever clogs
clever dick
cleverish
cleverly
cleverness
cleversome
cleversticks
hyperclever
overclever
too clever by half
ultraclever
unclever
Translations: