Knavery

//ˈneɪvəɹi// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The antics or tricks of a knave; boyish mischief. countable, uncountable

    "[…] Harry Monmouth, being in his right wittes and his good iudgements, turn'd away the fat Knight with the great belly doublet: he was full of ieſts, and gypes, and knaueries, and mockes; I haue forgot his name."

  2. 2
    lack of honesty; acts of lying or cheating or stealing wordnet
  3. 3
    An unprincipled action; deceit. countable, uncountable

    "Caſsio’s a proper man, let me ſee now, / To get his place and to make vp my will, / A double knauery—how, how,—let me see, […]"

Synonyms

All synonyms
mischiefabominationartartful dodgeartificeatrocity

Example

More examples

"[…] Harry Monmouth, being in his right wittes and his good iudgements, turn'd away the fat Knight with the great belly doublet: he was full of ieſts, and gypes, and knaueries, and mockes; I haue forgot his name."

Etymology

From knave + -ery.

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