Crafty

//ˈkɹæfti// adj

adj ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Skillful at deceiving others.

    "For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty."

  2. 2
    Sneaky; surreptitious.

    "I took a crafty look at his hand of cards while he was out of the room."

  3. 3
    Relating to, or characterized by, craft or skill; dexterous.
  4. 4
    Possessing dexterity; skilled; skillful.

    "Make magazine, which celebrates “your right to tweak, hack and bend any technology to your own will,” has joined with the New York Hall of Science to gather more than 500 of the craftiest inventors, artists, technology enthusiasts, tinkerers and hobbyists to share their expertise."

  5. 5
    Magical or occult, or allegedly so. dated

    "a crafty science"

Adjective
  1. 1
    marked by skill in deception wordnet

Example

More examples

"Crafty is the Lord, but malicious He is not."

Etymology

From Middle English crafty, crefty, craftiȝ, from Old English cræftiġ (“ingenious; skilful; crafty; cunning; virtuous; powerful”), from Proto-West Germanic *kraftag, *kraftīg, *kraftug, from Proto-Germanic *kraftugaz (“powerful”), equivalent to craft + -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian kräftich, krääftig, West Frisian krêftich, Dutch krachtig, German Low German krachtig, German kräftig.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.