clever
Meanings
- Nimble with hands or body; dexterous; skillful; adept.
- Quick to understand, learn, and devise or apply ideas; intelligent.
- Mentally quick and resourceful; skilled at achieving what one wants in a mentally agile and inventive way.
- Smart, intelligent, or witty; mentally quick or sharp.
- Sane; in one's right mind.
- Showing mental quickness and resourcefulness.
- Showing inventiveness or originality; witty.
- Fit and healthy; free from fatigue or illness.
- Good-natured; obliging.
- Possessing magical abilities.
- Fit; suitable; having propriety.
- Well-shaped; handsome.
- A city in Missouri.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
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).