cunnings

Noun

cunning (countable and uncountable, plural cunnings)

1. Practical knowledge or experience; aptitude in performance; skill, proficiency; dexterity.
   • indeed at this very moment he's slipped away with the utmost cunning into a form that's most perplexing to investigate.2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 236d
2. Practical skill employed in a secret or crafty manner; craft; artifice; skillful deceit; art or magic.
   • Caliban: As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
3. The disposition to employ one's skill in an artful manner; craftiness; guile; artifice; skill of being cunning, sly, conniving, or deceitful.
4. The natural wit or instincts of an animal.
   • the cunning of the fox or hare
5. (obsolete) Knowledge; learning; special knowledge (sometimes implying occult or magical knowledge).

See all 10 meanings of cunning