ARTFUL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Artful

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/ˈɑrtfəl/ Listen

adjective

Artful adj.

Performed with, or characterized by, art or skill. (Archaic) "Artful strains." "Artful terms."

Artificial; imitative.

Using or exhibiting much art, skill, or contrivance; dexterous; skillful. "He (was) too artful a writer to set down events in exact historical order."

Cunning; disposed to cunning indirectness of dealing; crafty; as, an artful boy. (The usual sense.) "Artful in speech, in action, and in mind." "The artful revenge of various animals."

Synonyms: Cunning; skillful; adroit; dexterous; crafty; tricky; deceitful; designing. See Cunning.

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Etymology of 'Artful'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Artful" Quotes from Famous Books

... artful and well-concocted way, which we may readily conceive, but it were weary to detail, John Dillaway managed to forge a will of Jane Mackenzie aforesaid; and inducing some dressed-up "ladies" of his acquaintance to personate the weeping nieces of deceased (doubtless with ...

— The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper • Martin Farquhar Tupper

... Slinkton was heard through the clatter from the opposite side of the staircase, and he came in. He had not expected the pleasure of meeting me. I have seen several artful men brought to a stand, but I never saw a man so aghast as he was when his ...

— Hunted Down • Charles Dickens

... giving in would be very awkward for a young woman who shrieked out on platforms that old maids were the highest type. Adeline guessed Olive had perfect control of her now, unless indeed she used the expeditions to Cambridge as a cover for meeting gentlemen. She was an artful little minx, and cared as much for the rights of women as she did for the Panama Canal; the only right of a woman she wanted was to climb up on top of something, where the men could look at her. She would stay with Olive as long as it served her purpose, ...

— The Bostonians, Vol. I (of II) • Henry James

... destructive of this fundamental principle and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome ...

— Elson Grammer School Literature, Book Four. • William H. Elson and Christine Keck

... of the National Government. Three members of President Buchanan's cabinet—Cobb, of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury; Floyd, of Virginia, Secretary of War; and Thompson, of Mississippi, Secretary of the Interior—were rank and ardent disunionists. To the artful machinations of these three arch-traitors, who cared more for self than they did for the South, the success of the conspiracy was largely due. Grouped about them was a number of lesser functionaries, willing to lend their help. Even the President did not escape the suspicion ...

— The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 4 • Various

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