How to use canny in a sentence
28 example sentences · adjective, adverb
Canny means careful, prudent, cautious. Example: “The politician gave a canny response to the reporter’s questions.”
Examples of canny by meaning
adjectiveCareful, prudent, cautious.
- The politician gave a canny response to the reporter’s questions.
adjectiveKnowing, shrewd, astute.
- The canny lawyer knew just how to get what he wanted.
- She’s also a canny money-making machine.2005 May 8, Paul Harris, “How canny Paris turned into a global business brand”, in The Guardian
- Then again, in war, politics and life, it’s always wiser to treat your adversary as a canny fox, not a crazy fool.2022 March 29, Bret Stephens, “What if Putin Didn’t Miscalculate?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
adjectiveFriendly, pleasant, fair, agreeable; (sometimes) funny.
- She’s a canny lass hor like!
adjectiveGentle, quiet, steady.
- a canny horse
- Be canny with this letter.
adverbVery, considerably; quite, rather.
- a canny long journey
- canny near home
- That’s a canny big horse, man!
adverbGently, quietly; carefully, skilfully.
- he sits very canny
adjectiveNatural, normal.
- It’s not canny.”1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian
adjectiveSounding as if it is coming through a tin can.
- The rear sounds sounded canny compared to the front ones.1998 August 20, Kallel, Four speakers are a pain in the ass ;P, in 3dfx.products.voodoo2
- But if you had seats way up at the sides or at the back I can understand that you could have experienced a "canny" sound.2001 October 8, Philippe, “Antwerp - what a disappointment !!!!”, in alt.music.depeche-mode (Usenet)
- Hear more low end, and slightly less canny sounding from what I can tell.2010 May 24, nm...@wt.net, “FlipHD Saturday SECTR5 LittleWing”, in alt.guitar (Usenet)
More sentences with canny
- A slow dancing death, courtesy of the short rope, brouht in by canny executioners.2022 November 30, John Gardiner, A Hitchhiker's Triptych. From the entry dance
- He gave off an aura not of romance or woolly artisanality but rather of canny commercial nous.2010, Matthew Fort, Eating Up Italy: Voyages on a Vespa, page 45. From the entry artisanality
- While adolescents are canny enough to hide their Juuls from you, they don't really believe that vaping is harmful.2018 December 18, Jan Hoffman, “How to Help Teenagers Quit Vaping”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company…. From the entry Juul
- A canny marketer, García Martínez wrote, could "goose" purchasing power if Facebook's estimation of its "clickbaitness" was high.2018 November 26, Matt Taibbi, “Who Will Fix Facebook?”, in Rolling Stone, New York, N.Y.: Penske Media Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC…. From the entry clickbaitness
- Browns are canny, the most wary of trout.2001, Percival Everett, Erasure, Faber & Faber Limited (2021), page 67. From the entry brown trout
- A prince is a man among men, a canny fighter, a steely sovereign who takes what he wants out of life.1997, Harriet Rubin, The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women, →ISBN. From the entry man among men
- It was a point of honour not to ca’ canny.1922, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World. From the entry ca canny
- Scott, our enterprising, famous branch secretary moved the resolution in favor of ca' canny in a concise and practical speech.1904, United States Congressional serial set, number 4732, page 727. From the entry ca' canny
- Their canny friends burned copies to leave on buses, but more importantly, uploaded them to filesharing sites and set up a MySpace page.2015 October 22, Laura Snapes, “How Arctic Monkeys’ debut single changed the music industry and ‘killed the NME’”, in The Guardian…. From the entry burn
- You look a right canny lass.2010, Clare B. Dunkle, The House of Dead Maids, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, page 5. From the entry maidie
- Canniest riever on moss and moor!1977, Richard Adams, The Plague Dogs. From the entry tod
- Tester is 50 years old, he’s seasoned in state politics, he ran a canny, gloves-off campaign, and he’s the kind of charismatic, hard-to-peg, Western neopopulist (like his friend, Gov.2007 January 7, Deirdre Mcnamer, “They Came From Montana”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 26 Jan 2021. From the entry Mr.
- Robert Brooks, 69, canny businessman who, as chairman of Hooters, turned the bar-restaurant chain, famed for buxom waitresses in orange hot pants, into an international success.2003 July 23, “Milestones”, in TIME, archived from the original on 23 Jun 2008. From the entry buxom
Meaning of canny
- adjective Careful, prudent, cautious.
- adjective Knowing, shrewd, astute.
- adjective Frugal, thrifty.
Questions about canny in a sentence
- How do you use canny in a sentence?
- Canny is used as an adjective and adverb. For example: “The politician gave a canny response to the reporter’s questions.”
- What is a short sentence with canny?
- “It’s not canny.””
- What does canny mean?
- Canny means careful, prudent, cautious.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: canny (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use canny in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/canny. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.