clever2 (klever)

i. A variant of claver2. cleverality (klev-e-ral'i-ti), n. [ Sheridan was clever; scamps often are; but Johnson had not a spark of cleverality in him. Charlotte Brontë . cleverism (klev'ér-izm), n. [ Mr. Smith naturally and inevitably saw chiefly the busy, pushing talkers of the big towns, full of the last new clever isms, just sharp enough to repeat the parrot cries of European mischief-makers, and to be ingeniously wrong Contemporary Rev., LI. 11. on most subjects. cleverly (klev'er-li), adv. 1. Dexterously; skilfully; ably; effectively. These would inveigle rats with th' scent, And sometimes catch them with a snap, As cleverly as th' ablest trap. S. Butler , Hudibras, ii. 1. 2. Pleasantly; nicely; comfortably: as, to be cleverly lodged. [Obsolete or provincial.] -3. Fairly; actually. [Colloq.] We had let our sails go by the run, before it [the hurricane] cleverly took us. Poe , Tales, I. 169. The landlord comes to me as soon as I was cleverly up in the morning. Haliburton , Sam Slick in Eng., viii. cleverne (klev'èr-nes), n. [ -ne .] 1. The quality of being clever; quickne of intellect or mechanical dexterity; adroitne ; skill; ingenuity; intelligence. Cleverne is a sort of genius for instrumentality. It is the brain of the hand. In literature, cleverne is more frequently accompanied by wit than by humour. Cole ridge, The Friend (ed. Moxon), II. 133. Shallow is a fool. But his animal spirits supply, to a certain degree, the place of cleverne . Macaulay , Machi a vell i. Circles in whose precise vocabulary cleverne implies mere aptitude for doing and knowing, apart from char George Eliot , Middle march, I. 95. acter. 2. Mildne or agreeablene of disposition; obligingne ; good nature. [Colloq., U. S.] =Syn. 1. Faculty, Ingenuity, etc. (see genius ), aptne , clevis, clevy (klev'is, klev'i), n.; pl. clevises (-i-sez), clevies (-iz). [Appar. ult. readine , quickne , expertne . Clevis. U, with the two ends perforated to receive a pin, used to connect a draft-chain or whippletree to a cart or plow.