clever

Definition

  • adjective: intelligent and able to learn things quickly
  • adjective: skillful or adroit in using the hands or body
  • often used in a joking or ironic way to describe a foolish idea, action, etc.
  • synonyms: nimble, smart, expert

Examples

  • Don't you start getting 'clever' [=('US') 'fresh'] with me! [=don't speak to me in a disrespectful way]

  • For someone who hasn't been 'feeling too clever' lately, he just played a great round of golf.

  • A few 'clever' [='smart, bright'] students have started a business recycling old computers.

Movie quotes

  • (..) Our lord has spoken. Gather the Knights of the Vale. The time has come to join the fray. You invite the enemy into our city? I did. As a clever man once told me, "We make peace with our enemies, not our friends." I don't make peace with the queen's enemies. I kill the queen's enemies. (..)
    2016 TvShow: Game of Thrones Title: Book of the Stranger Season: 6 Episode 4
  • (..) - Oh, how sweet, Sonny. - On your yacht. Well, that's big of you. Isn't it? Bobo thought of it. She thought it would be so clever, on account of... this man being a man with boats, to give the party on your boat. That was clever of you. Wasn't it. (..)
    1939 Cafe Society
  • (..) - Rich, idle... - Creative and hardworking people in the country. They do things that seem silly to your mighty mind but they're clever and restless, and refuse to be humdrum and dull. Humdrum and dull. You've been surrounded by phonies so long you can't tell them from real people. (..)
    1939 Cafe Society