Clever
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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
clever¹
- /ˈklɛv.ə/ UK
- /ˈklɛv.ɚ/ US
Rhymes with -ɛvə(ɹ)
Where it comes from
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).
adjective cleverer · more clever · cleverest · most clever
- Nimble with hands or body; dexterous; skillful; adept. My dad is quite clever with his hands, especially at carpentry.
- Quick to understand, learn, and devise or apply ideas; intelligent. 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
- Mentally quick and resourceful; skilled at achieving what one wants in a mentally agile and inventive way. clever like a fox
- Smart, intelligent, or witty; mentally quick or sharp. And so make life, death, and that vast forever / One grand, sweet song.
- Sane; in one's right mind. 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, […]
- Showing mental quickness and resourcefulness. This is a simple but clever trick to solve the problem.
- Showing inventiveness or originality; witty. 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
- Fit and healthy; free from fatigue or illness. 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.
- Good-natured; obliging.
- Possessing magical abilities. 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.
- Fit; suitable; having propriety. 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.
- Well-shaped; handsome. 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.
Clever²
Where it comes from
* Rhymes: -ɛvə(ɹ)
proper noun
- A city in Missouri.
