craftly
craftly adjective: skillful, expert; indicative of skill.
Adjective
craftly (comparative more craftly, superlative most craftly)
- Skillful, expert; indicative of skill.
- 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 geometry1506, 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...
- 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...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
- Crafty, cunning.
- Mo than a thouſande ways he hath / by his craftly fraudes to deceyue man.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...
- 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...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...
Adverb
craftly (comparative more craftly, superlative most craftly)
- Skillfully, expertly.
- Now cryſt [i.e., Christ] our comely creature clerer thã cryſtal clene / That craftly made euery creature by good recreacyon / Saue all this company that is gathered here bydene / And ſet all your ſoules in to good ſaluacyonc. 1500–6, […] [T]he Worlde and the Chylde / otherwyse Called [Mundus ⁊ Infans] […], London: […] wynkyn de worde, published 17 July 1522, →OCLC, signature C.iiij., verso; reproduced in facsimile as...
- The Pen Becomes a Clarion / When we write about this gracious Hillsborough home. 8 rms. in all, craftly decorated as only large high-ceiling rooms can be, some beautifully beamed.1959 September 23, Coldwell, Banker & Co., “The Pen Becomes a Clarion”, in San Mateo Times, volume 59, number 228, San Mateo, Calif., page 26, column 6
- Craftily, cunningly.
- In the quhylkis war nocht, bot bꝛokyn leiffis and few of thaym bꝛaider than the palme of ane mannis hand, wꝛittin craftly on rude and hard parchement.[[1540?], Hector Boece, translated by Johne Bellenden, “Of Ethodius brothir to Eugenius afore rehersit. Of his gouernance in Denmark and of his successioun. Hovv Rome vvas tane be Gothis, and hovv...
- […] of ſo high a Science they haue made a certaine Logomachie, that is, an vndiſcreate altercation, goinge from ſchole to ſchole, mouinge queſtions, foꝛging opinions, and wꝛong the Scriptures with intricate wooꝛdes geuinge them a contrarie ſence, redier craftly to deceiue, then plainely to trie out...1569, Henrie [i.e., Heinrich] Cornelius Agrippa, translated by Ja[mes] San[dford], “Of Scholasticall Diuinitie”, in Of the Vanitie and Vncertaintie of Artes and Sciences, London: […] Henry Wykes […]...
Examples of craftly in a sentence
- There are all sorts of subjects, and all sorts of styles, but all of them interesting, every one of them craftly and distinguished.1919 October 29, “[London Letter: Westminster, Tuesday Night.] Artist and Humourist.”, in The Devon and Exeter Daily Gazette, volume...
- 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.1963, Paul West, “The limits”, in The Modern Novel, London: Hutchinson of London, →OCLC, part one (Flux), page 11:
- But vain were words, entreaties vain, / The craftly witch secured my swain.1921, Aristaenetus, translated by Richard Brinsley Sheridan and [Nathaniel Brassey] Halhed, “[From the Love Epistles of Aristaenetus. (358...
- Due to considerations of brevity, we mention only a few of these craftly written works.1981, Marjorie Agosin, “Edla Van Steen, ed., O conto da mulher brasileira. Sao Paulo: Vertente Editora, 1978. 251 p.”, in The Rocky...
Forms of craftly
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more craftly |
| superlative | most craftly |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more craftly |
| superlative | most craftly |
Origin of craftly
From Middle English crafftly, craftely, from Old English cræftlīc; equivalent to craft + -ly.
From Middle English craflike, craftli, craftliche, craftly, creftly, from Old English cræftlīce; equivalent to craft + -ly.
Questions about craftly
- What does craftly mean?
- Craftly means skillful, expert; indicative of skill.
- How do you use craftly in a sentence?
- There are all sorts of subjects, and all sorts of styles, but all of them interesting, every one of them craftly and distinguished.
- What part of speech is craftly?
- Craftly can be an adjective or an adverb.
Words near craftly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: craftly (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “craftly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/craftly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.