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What is "clever"

Crossword clues for clever

clever
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
clever
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a clever device (=made using a clever idea)
▪ This clever little device rings to tell you where you left your keys.
a clever idea
▪ It seemed like a clever idea at the time.
a clever lawyer
▪ A clever lawyer may get a case against his client dropped because of a technicality.
cunning/clever/ingenious
▪ They devised a cunning plan to get back their money.
▪ The gang devised a cunning plan to rob the bank.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
▪ But like every other species, including the human, the bee is just as clever as it needs to be.
▪ Short answer: The inside is as clever as the outside.
▪ Most missiles with pretensions to cleverness are brighter than a laser-guided bomb, but not as clever as a Tomahawk.
▪ Now it's time for the kill, and the final twists are as clever as they are gripping.
▪ And as ruthless, and as clever.
extremely
▪ Coleridge had developed an apparently relaxed, but in fact extremely clever style of blank verse.
▪ He was outrageously affected, flamboyantly homosexual, and extremely clever.
▪ No drugs were found on Guiding Lights but two extremely clever concealments were uncovered.
▪ Antony here is extremely clever and manipulative.
▪ She knew people with mental disorders could often be extremely clever at concealing them.
how
▪ If he won't go much higher up the ramp, we tell him how clever he is and take him away.
▪ You have no idea how clever he is.
▪ She drank and smiled. How clever of Charles to simplify the whole thing to its basics.
▪ What I like is how clever it is.
▪ You see how clever Stapleton was.
▪ Sometimes we just don't think about how clever we really are.
▪ Then she thought, How clever of Felix to say that he was a friend of my parents.
▪ We come to believe that good writing shows how clever we are.
more
▪ Besides, the newspapers wrote about politics in a more clever, sharper and faster way.
▪ I was just going to have to be more clever, more methodical in the way I went about it.
▪ You think you're better than I am in just about every way, more beautiful, more clever, more experienced.
▪ People who can present themselves well appear more clever, poised and promotable.
▪ Lilly had not been more beautiful than the other women who sought him, just more clever.
▪ Climbing in the rain makes you feel a lot more clever than it should rationally justify.
pretty
▪ But these are pretty clever boxes.
quite
▪ Actually, it's quite clever.
▪ No, no one in my country was quite clever enough to program intelligent agents.
▪ He was quite clever, Dad, in his way, but he had never had an education.
▪ The thing he's very good at is opening bottles and he's quite clever at other things, too.
▪ Well the rhyme was quite clever, but somehow it didn't have the prize-winning ring to it.
▪ I have had to start hiding my money, but he is quite clever at finding it.
rather
▪ Wheat skimming is rather cleverer than potato washing.
so
▪ I don't know when I've heard anything quite so clever!
▪ But Cara is so clever and she works so hard.
▪ It was so clever, his way of catching fish!
▪ She was so clever to have thought of it.
▪ Who would have thought the old man could be so clever?
▪ Those claims no longer look so clever.
▪ We have become so clever: it has become so easy.
▪ You think you're so clever!
too
▪ You might be just a wee bit too clever for your own good now.
▪ But Blier is a little too clever, a little too wink-wink for his own good.
▪ Emma: Too clever by half, Or so the critics said, week in, week out.
▪ Oh no, Eloise Skipton was too clever for that.
▪ But Black is too clever for that and has gone into hiding, waiting for the pressure to ease up.
▪ According to her, he was too clever for his own good.
very
▪ However, for some one supposed to be very clever, he seemed to get a great deal of pleasure out of ordinary things.
▪ The child psychologists have gotten very clever.
▪ But he was a very clever, interesting man.
▪ If they go in and it turns out not to be very clever, the referendum covers their backs.
▪ Either that or it's some one very clever.
▪ I assured her that I was laughing because I was happy to be with them and because the story-teller was very clever.
▪ I respect George for doing this, and find it very clever for him.
■ NOUN
boy
▪ It is the stuff of ivory towers and only clever boys and girls are expected to reflect upon its themes.
▪ Molassi had listened to the conversation between the clever boy and the pretty lady.
▪ A clever boy, that, and was always Heuil's shadow.
▪ But Tony was not a clever boy.
▪ Like when he'd killed the clever boy, who had blasphemed the headster time.
girl
▪ A clever girl, though, Miss Morgan, an Exhibitioner like Francesca and a respectable second-class degree.
▪ She's a good, clever girl.
▪ The cleverest girls always knew the answer of course.
▪ She was a clever girl, to realise that there would never be another train in this station.
idea
▪ He had none of Monks' clever ideas.
▪ I can not remember half of the astonishingly clever ideas which they were working on.
▪ That too seemed quite natural, but it was a clever idea all the same.
▪ But clever ideas do not always translate into clever investments.Take the first-quarter results.
▪ None the less, many physicists agree that the new antenna is a simple, yet particularly clever idea.
▪ Readers' original gardening tips Has your clever idea won a £50 cash prize this month?
▪ Feedback is a very clever idea.
man
▪ The Earl of Bothwell - a strong, clever man.
▪ The abbot was a clever man.
▪ But he was a clever man, this burglar, and two prizes presented themselves for him today.
▪ He was a good strong, clever man, and he worked hard.
▪ He was a clever man and he wrote clever plays, but people still liked Will's plays best.
▪ Waiters made him feel a fool, this clever man.
people
▪ They believe that creative thought is only for clever people.
▪ There are also clever people who design and supply ready printed cards for their own patterns.
▪ These positions are usually filled by clever people, allowing both boys and girls to draw wrongful conclusions.
▪ Who to buy it for: clever people 7.
▪ Do not despise clever people, Mr Wormwood.
▪ Competition between very clever people to be first with the best answers yields the progress on which technological improvement depends.
▪ They are wonderfully clever people, of that there is little doubt, but wisdom seems to be in frighteningly short supply.
▪ Well madam, I don't like clever people!
trick
▪ You can do clever tricks too.
▪ It was a clever trick to give him time to choose his words.
▪ Both play a very clever trick which will answer the prayers of video users all round the world.
use
▪ By clever use of the medium and washes, all sorts of possibilities open up.
▪ At Griffith Park in 1939, Jimmy Demaret helped his cause in the third round by clever use of his wedge.
▪ This effect was created by the clever use of a pink filter.
▪ Much valuable data can be recovered by clever use of the flash answer.
▪ As in any mathematics teaching, clever use of questions can nudge people along.
▪ The union leaders appear to be building public support for their cause, with clever use of symbolic gestures and public relations.
way
▪ A clever way of stifling discussion and few could have done it so well.
▪ The accountants who continued to divine clever ways of justifying this structure?
▪ There is, however, a clever way in which matters otherwise irrelevant may be lightly introduced.
▪ The Dialogue Group was simply looking for a clever way to intimidate Ray.
▪ Doing the splits Others think they may have found a clever way out of their troubles: breaking themselves up.
▪ And they do so in a clever way.
▪ Of course, I might have known that you'd have some clever way of dealing with everything, though.
woman
▪ He could imagine the two clever women, and the delicate fencing.
▪ But, for heaven's sake, Laura, you're a clever woman.
▪ I appreciate you're a very clever woman, but then I never took you for a fool.
▪ She was both a clever woman and a fool at one and the same time.
▪ She is a clever woman, Madame Leonie.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
that's a good girl/that's a clever dog etc
there's a good boy/clever dog etc
too clever/rich/good etc by half
▪ The arithmetic can not be faulted - and may well be judged too clever by half.
too nice/clever etc for your own good
▪ According to her, he was too clever for his own good.
▪ That Tom was too nice for his own good.
▪ They were both too nice for their own good.
▪ You might be just a wee bit too clever for your own good now.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a clever joke
▪ Ben Gurion was a cool, calculating and clever politician.
▪ Doug's always been clever at finding the best deals available.
▪ Gibson met a clever classmate who had built his own radio transmitter.
▪ I've thought of a really clever way of making money.
▪ In the story, the miller's daughter is a clever, beautiful girl.
▪ It is a clever device that can chop onions in seconds.
▪ It sounds like a clever idea. Do you think it'll work?
▪ My sister was always much cleverer than me at school.
▪ Tabloid reporters are very clever and persistent.
▪ That was very clever of you, How did you do that?
▪ They won the case by being clever and hiring influential lawyers to help them.
▪ Virtual Listening Systems have introduced one of the year's most unusual and clever new products.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Actually, it's quite clever.
▪ From the start it was conceived as a clever commercial package rather than a deeply personal film.
▪ He can be really clever when he wants to be.
▪ If he didn't, some clever lawyer would get the boy off on a technicality.
▪ She was clever, and he thought she was a bit too serious, although she had a sense of humour.
▪ They are clever work, but they merely represent a harnessing of this quantum effect.
▪ What I like is how clever it is.
▪ Who would have thought the old man could be so clever?
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Clever

Clever \Clev"er\, a. [Origin uncertain. Cf. OE. cliver eager, AS. clyfer (in comp.) cloven; or clifer a claw, perh. connected with E. cleave to divide, split, the meaning of E. clever perh. coming from the idea of grasping, seizing (with the mind).]

  1. Possessing quickness of intellect, skill, dexterity, talent, or adroitness; expert.

    Though there were many clever men in England during the latter half of the seventeenth century, there were only two great creative minds.
    --Macaulay.

    Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever.
    --C. Kingsley.

  2. Showing skill or adroitness in the doer or former; as, a clever speech; a clever trick.
    --Byron.

  3. Having fitness, propriety, or suitableness.

    ``T would sound more clever To me and to my heirs forever.
    --Swift.

  4. Well-shaped; handsome. ``The girl was a tight, clever wench as any was.''
    --Arbuthnot.

  5. Good-natured; obliging. [U. S.]

    Syn: See Smart.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
clever

1580s, "handy, dexterous," apparently from East Anglian dialectal cliver "expert at seizing," perhaps from East Frisian klüfer "skillful," or Norwegian dialectic klover "ready, skillful," and perhaps influenced by Old English clifer "claw, hand" (early usages seem to refer to dexterity). Or perhaps akin to Old Norse kleyfr "easy to split" and from a root related to cleave "to split." Extension to intellect is first recorded 1704.\n\nThis is a low word, scarcely ever used but in burlesque or conversation; and applied to any thing a man likes, without a settled meaning.

[Johnson, 1755]

\nThe meaning has narrowed since, but clever also often in old use and dialect meant "well-shaped, attractive-looking" and in 19c. American English sometimes "good-natured, agreeable." Related: Cleverly; cleverness.
Wiktionary
clever

a. 1 nimble with hands or body; skillful; adept. 2 resourceful, sometimes to the point of cunning.

Related phrases:
WordNet
clever

  1. adj. skillful (or showing skill) in adapting means to ends; "cool prudence and sensitive selfishness along with quick perception of what is possible--these distinguish an adroit politician"; "came up with a clever story"; "an ingenious press agent"; "an ingenious scheme" [syn: adroit, ingenious]

  2. showing self-interest and shrewdness in dealing with others; "a cagey lawyer"; "too clever to be sound" [syn: cagey, cagy, canny]

  3. mentally quick and resourceful; "an apt pupil"; "you are a clever man...you reason well and your wit is bold"-Bram Stoker [syn: apt]

  4. showing inventiveness and skill; "a clever gadget"; "the cunning maneuvers leading to his success"; "an ingenious solution to the problem" [syn: cunning, ingenious]

Related phrases:
Gazetteer
Clever, MO -- U.S. city in Missouri
Population (2000): 1010
Housing Units (2000): 420
Land area (2000): 0.638569 sq. miles (1.653887 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 0.638569 sq. miles (1.653887 sq. km)
FIPS code: 14788
Located within: Missouri (MO), FIPS 29
Location: 37.028804 N, 93.470067 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 65631
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Clever, MO
Clever
Wikipedia
Clever (TV series)

Clever was a short-lived Australian television series hosted by Georgie Parker which aired Sunday nights at 6.30pm on the Nine Network. The show was a quiz show that featured science and technology based questions and in studio experiments.It was canceled due to lack of ratings after only five episodes. Channel 9 tried to revive the show for the summer months, but all plans fell through.

Category:Australian non-fiction television series Category:Nine Network shows Category:2006 Australian television series debuts Category:2006 Australian television series endings Category:2000s Australian television series

CLEVER

The CLEVER (for "compact low emission vehicle for urban transport") is a type of tilting three-wheeled motor vehicle that was developed in a collaboration between the University of Bath, BMW and a number of other partners from across Europe. CLEVER is designed as an alternative to conventional means of personal urban transport. The narrow body endows it with some of the manoeuvrability and congestion avoiding capability of a motorcycle, whilst offering comparable weather and impact protection to a car. Carbon emissions are reduced as a function of low weight and a small frontal area. The narrow track width requires that CLEVER tilts into corners to maintain stability; thus it is fitted with a Direct Tilt Control (DTC) system that uses hydraulic actuators linking the cabin to the non-tilting rear engine module.

CLEVER measures only 1 meter wide and has a maximum speed of approximately 50 mph. It runs on compressed natural gas, achieving a predicted 188 miles per gallon fuel efficiency. Construction of the first of five prototype vehicles was completed on Friday, April 21, 2006. Shortly after construction, track testing of a prototype vehicle revealed that, in certain transient situations, the DTC system could not guarantee stability of the vehicle. , research into alternative tilt control strategies for the CLEVER vehicle is still on-going at the University of Bath.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "clever".

George Riot slipped into town and on the telephone muttered that she must meet him again at the dreary Hex Hotel, she refused, because she was going to a party to be given by the clever Miss Teddy Klutz, aetat 24, the youngest and liveliest teacher at their Qwick-Shure Secretarial and Executive Commercial College, Positions Guaranteed.

The Abbasids, cleverer politicians than the notoriously unskillful Alids, made use of the Alid propaganda to secure the booty to themselves at the right moment.

More than this, the clever Alsatian had slipped a topographical map of the surrounding country between two of the plates in the basket.

She had learned how clever he could be and how fully capable he was of manipulating her feelings.

But as he was a man powerful in arms and clever in artifice, he did not allow himself to succumb at the first blow, and in all haste fortified Annona, Novarro, and Alessandria, sent off Cajazzo with troops to that part of the Milanese territory which borders on the states of Venice, and collected on the Po as many troops as he could.

On the tenth day, the disease having abated for three days, my clever old doctor answered for my life, but I continued to spit blood till the eighteenth day.

Because of clever positioning, the ants in the front ranks were clearly visible long before they reached the trenches.

Where the Empire gains over the usual bloodline set-up is they use the game to recruit the cleverest, most ruthless and manipulative apices from the whole population to run the show, rather than have to marry new blood into some stagnant aristocracy and hope for the best when the genes shake out.

He was the solicitor-general, a clever and powerful Bashkir, who was now administering the Ashera family business.

It was a pity to die, but he was a soldier, and no one had yet devised a way a man could live for ever, not even those clever bastards in Edinburgh.

Ibn Batlan, a clever physician, was a contemporary of Ibn Ridhwan, and travelled from Baghdad to Egypt only for the purpose of making his acquaintance, but the result does not appear to have been satisfactory to either party.

He was a Bechuana by birth, a good hunter, and for a native a very clever man.

Domingo de Irala, a clever, ambitious Biscayan soldier who had been interim Governor before Nunez had arrived, had worked upon the people, saying that Nunez wished to take away their property.

At this moment old Blackstrap advanced, and requested permission to introduce to our notice Jack Physick, an honest lawyer, and, as he said, one of the cleverest fellows and best companions in Bath.

Yet what greater demonstration of your bloodguiltiness could there be than that you came in danger of perishing at the hands of those very persons in whose behalf you pretended you had done this, that you were afraid of the very ones whom you said you had benefited by these acts, and that you did not wait to hear from them or say a word to them, you clever, you extraordinary man, you aider of other people, but secured your safety by flight as if from a battle?