ˈover-ˈcunning, n.
[over- 29 d.]
Excess of cunning; too great knowingness.
| 1603 Florio Montaigne iii. i. (1632) 446 Truely they make my cunning overcunning. 1616 Rich Cabinet 80 Knauery is an ouercunning of wit and craft, which hath twenty tricks to cozen others. 1640 Habington Edw. IV 31 This I believe an overcunning in conjecture. |
So ˈover-ˈcunning a., too cunning; ˌover-ˈcunning v. trans. (nonce-wd.), to manage too cunningly.
| a 1634 Marston (Webster), Unadvisedly overcunning in misunderstanding me. 1801 Earl Malmesbury Diaries & Corr. IV. 5 Loughborough and Auckland appear to have over-cunning'd the business. |