low cunning

Frequency: 4.02.2 per million words

Refers to a basic, often selfish or mean-spirited type of cleverness, not sophisticated.

cunningADJECTIVE + NOUN

Categories:

low

Examples (10)

  • He was a man of great ambition but possessed only a sort of low cunning.
  • He used low cunning to manipulate his colleagues and get the promotion.
  • The villain's character was defined not by intelligence, but by a savage, low cunning.
  • Her survival in the slums was attributed to her sharp instincts and a degree of low cunning.
  • I saw a flicker of low cunning in his eyes just before he lied.
  • It takes a certain low cunning to succeed in that cut-throat business.
  • He mistook his own low cunning for genuine intelligence.
  • The political scheme was a masterpiece of low cunning, not of brilliant strategy.
  • Throughout the interrogation, he relied on denial and low cunning to evade the questions.
  • Such a simple trap could only have been devised by a mind with low cunning.