cunning


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(as) cunning as a fox

Exceptionally clever, cunning, or shrewd, especially in devious or underhanded ways. He thought he was being cunning as a fox in the way he had been skimming money from the cash registers, but management caught up with him eventually. The novel centers around the cat-and-mouse chase between a police detective and a thief who is as cunning as a fox. She may come off as nothing but smiles and sunshine, but trust me—she's cunning as a fox!
See also: cunning, fox
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

*sly as a fox

 and *cunning as a fox
Cliché smart and clever. (*Also: as ~.) My nephew is as sly as a fox. You have to be cunning as a fox to outwit me.
See also: fox, sly
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
See also:
References in periodicals archive ?
Both friends and foes can recognise that this is scarcely a formula for maximising support for the cunning plan.
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Eventually, cunning can be anticipated and countered, and strength can be gradually worn down or, if a fundamental weakness is identified, quickly demolished.
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Since Nigeria would lead all nations as the country with the highest number of poor people in 2018, the Devil's cunning advocates would entrench policies to arrest development.
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Nevertheless, since the bellicose appropriation of the bellicose version of the pre-classical cunning rationality seriously limits the influence of prudence in a prince's political reasoning, we wonder if Machiavellian appropriation of the pre-classical cunning rationality does not avoid the prince's fall into the hubris of violence.
Metis and violence in Machiavellian political theory
"I'm 44 and you think a little bit differently as you get older, but hopefully I can think a bit more wisely and use a bit of cunning and guile."
Westwood aims to make experience count
No Cunning Plan: The Autobiography by Tony Robinson will be published in the UK in the Sidgwick & Jackson imprint this September.
Pan Macmillan acquires world rights to autobiography of Sir Tony Robinson
A fan of classic comedy Blackadder, Charles is said to identify not with the lead role but with the blundering sidekick whose "cunning plans" are often ridiculed.
Prince: I'm a Baldrick
He only took up the running at the third bend, but still won by six lengths from Cunning Barney in a time of 28.76sec on a track rated 20 slow - and that looked conservative!
Fahys mourn Isabel
But Claire Cunning and her colleagues never applied for a child protection order and Declan's decomposing body was found in his litter-filled cot in March 2010.
We could have taken tragic Declan from addict mum if we thought he was at risk; Senior social worker tells probe into tot's death they had no evidence
On the feast of the Epiphany, Pope Francis said that Christians should go out into the world to follow God but use "holy cunning" to guard against the snares of the devil.
Guard faith with 'spiritual cunning'
Immediately after that we are told, Now the serpent was more cunning (arum) than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made (Gen.
Wordplay in Genesis 2:25-3:1
But board convenor, Councillor Malcolm Cunning, said: "It's a decision we find disappointing.
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A "CUNNING career criminal" has been sent to prison for two years.
Cunning criminal; IN BRIEF
David Cunning's Argument and Persuasion in Descartes' Meditations is an ambitious book, offering interpretations of and solutions to a wide range of interpretive issues in the Meditations.
David Cunning: Argument and Persuasion in Descartes' Meditations
Cunning of Grafton; a nephew, William Cunning and a niece, Mary Costa.
Charlotte T. McCarthy
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