▪ I. clever, a. (and adv.)
(ˈklɛvə(r))
Also 3, (8– dial.) cliver, 7 cleever, 7–8 cleaver.
[Early history obscure: app. in local and colloquial use long before it became a general literary word. A single example of cliver is known in ME., but the word has not been found again till the 16th c., and it appears not to have been in general use till the close of the 17th, since Sir Thos. Browne specially mentions it as East Anglian, and Ray explains it among his dialect words. Outside Eng., Koolman gives EFris. clüfer (from clifer), clever, skilful, alert, ready, nimble, and klöver, klever is used in same sense at Ribe Stift in Jutland (Molbech). The early example suggests relation to ME. clivers ‘claws, talons, clutches’, in the sense ‘nimble of claws, sharp to seize’, and the 16–17th c. examples (also of cleverly) show it connected with the use of the hands, a notion which still remains in the general sense of adroit, dexterous, having ‘the brain in the hand’. Cf. also cleverus. Clever appears to have come into general use about the time that deliver, formerly used in the sense ‘expert’, became obsolete, but there is no trace of any influence of the one upon the other. The sense-development has analogies with that of nimble, adroit, handy, handsome, nice, neat, clean.
a 1682 Sir T. Browne Tract viii. Wks. (1835) IV. 205 Words of no general reception in England, but of common use in Norfolk, or peculiar to the East Angle countries; as bawnd, bunny..straft, clever, matchly.]
A. adj. I. Nimble-handed, adroit, dexterous.
† 1. (?) Expert or nimble with the claws or hands, expert to seize. Obs.
| c 1220 Bestiary 221 in O.E. Misc. 7 On ðe cloðede ðe neddre is cof, and te deuel cliuer on sinnes; Ai ðe sinfule bisetten he wile. [i.e. The adder is quick (to dart) on the clothed, and the devil expert to lay hold on sins.] |
2. Deft or nimble of hands, neat-handed, ‘handy’; adroit, dexterous, or skilful in the use of the limbs and in bodily movements generally.
| 1580–95 Southwell Let. in Poet. Wks. (1856) p. xlviii, Many are deep Lawyers, many very clever in feats of body. 1614 [see cleverly]. 1674 Ray S. & E.C. Words (E.D.S.), Clever.. dextrous. 1677–1732 in Coles. 1682 D'Urfey Butler's Ghost 16 In what a Posture he must stand To do it with a clever hand. 1881 Leicestersh. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Clever, nimble, agile, deft: an epithet more commonly applied to horses than men. 1888 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Clever, applied to a horse which is a good fencer, i.e. who does not stumble or hesitate in making leaps..‘The old mare is as clever as a cat’. |
3. a. Of persons: Possessing skill or talent; able to use hand or brain readily and effectively; dexterous, skilful; adroit. (The current sense.) clever Dick: see Dick n.1 1 a.
| 1716 Addison Freeholder No. 22 The man has a cleaver pen it must be owned. a 1745 Swift Clever Tom Clinch (R.), As clever Tom Clinch, while the rabble was bawling, Rode stately through Holbourn to die in his calling. 1815 Jane Austen Emma v, Emma is spoiled by being the cleverest of her family. 1828 Carlyle Misc. (1858) I. 190 Clever men are good, but they are not the best. a 1834 Lamb Let. Southey in Life xvii. 67, I find genius..decline with me, but I get clever. 1858 Kingsley Farewell 5 Poems (1878) 216 Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever. |
b. Of things: Done or performed with adroitness, dexterity or skill, ingenious.
| a 1704 L'Estrange (J.), It was the cleverer mockery of the two. 1782 F. Burney Diary 15 Dec., Her drawings are reckoned extremely clever. I hate that word, but cannot think of another. 1874 B. Harte Idyls of Fort-hills, Wan Lee, The victims of any clever deception. 1883 Lloyd Ebb & Flow 30 Half a dozen clever sketches of views in India. |
II. Nimble, active, lithe, neat, handsome.
4. a. Nimble and light in movement; agile, active. Still dial.
| 1694 Sir W. Hope Sword-man's Vade-m. 67 To wear plates of leed betwixt..the soles of their ordinary walking shoes, that so they may feel themselves as it were lighter, and cleevrer [sic], when they put on their light dancing shoes. 1703 Lond. Gaz. No. 3924/4 Giles Willis, a Glocestershire Man..clever in Bulk, who lately was a Drayman in this Town. |
b. ‘Active’ as opposed to ‘infirm’; having ordinary healthy activity; in health, well. dial.
| c 1746 J. Collier (Tim Bobbin) Lanc. Gloss., Clever, cliver, lusty, skilful; also very well. 1775 in Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. XIII. 196 Father was very clever last Saturday p.m. 1815 Massachusetts Spy 14 June (Th.), I somehow did not feel quite clever, but hoped for the best. 1887 Kentish Gloss. (E.D.S.), Clever, in good health. ‘How are you to-day?’ ‘Well, thankee, not very clever’, i.e. not very active; not up to much exertion. 1937 Partridge Dict. Slang 158/2 Not too clever, indisposed in health..is common in Australia and New Zealand. |
5. Lithe of limb, clean-limbed, well-made; lithe, handsome. Now dial., also in U.S.
The evidence of quot. 1840 suggests that this sense is intended by ‘cleanly wrought’ in quot. 1674.
| 1674 [see 6]. 1728 Gay Begg. Op. ii. i, So clever a made Fellow he was. 1731 Mrs. Delany Autobiog. & Corr. (1861) I. 277 A clever-shaped young woman. a 1735 Arbuthnot (J.), He called her lousy Peg, though the girl was a tight clever wench as any was. 1840 Spurdens Supp. Voc. E. Anglia (E.D.S.), Clever. I believe this word is peculiar to us in the sense of ‘well-made’, applied to personal form; a clever lad—a clever horse. 1884 Cheshire Gloss. (E.D.S.), Clever, handsome. |
† 6. Neat. Obs.
| 1674 Ray S. & E.C. Words (E.D.S.), Clever, neat, smooth, cleanly wrought, dextrous. 1677–1732 Coles, Clever, neat, smooth, dextrous. 1725 Bailey Erasm. Colloq. 341 There is a clever [nitidum] neat church, but the Virgin does not dwell in it herself. |
III. Handy, convenient, agreeable, ‘nice’.
† 7. Handy, neat and convenient to use; not clumsy or unwieldy. Obs.
| 1715 Desaguliers Fires Impr. 106 They might be made of Plate-Iron; but it wou'd be difficult to make them so exact and clever..such great Plates of Iron are not manag'd and work'd so easily. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1840) II. vi. 125 They took in pieces all my clumsy unhandy things, and made them clever convenient tables, stools, bedsteads, etc. 1883 Stevenson Treasure Isl. xxiii. 183 A very safe boat..both buoyant and clever in a seaway. |
8. With the mod. colloquial sense of ‘nice’, i.e. pleasing from convenience or agreeableness. † a. Convenient, suitable, agreeable; ‘nice’. Obs.
| 1757 Gray Corr. w. Mason 88 If you could write directly, it would be clever. 1769 Miss Talbot Lett. Mrs. Carter III. 191 We could not have been in so clever a place as this is, circumstanced as we are, this summer. a 1800 Cowper Wks. V. 290 These clever apartments. 1811 L. M. Hawkins C'tess & Gertr. III. 51. |
b. As a general epithet of satisfaction or liking (see quot. 1755). Cf. ‘nice’. dial.
| 1738 Swift & Pope Horace Sat. ii. vi. 11 All this is mine but till I die. I can't but think 'twould sound more clever, To me and to my heirs for ever. 1755 Johnson, Clever..4 This is a low word, scarcely ever used but in burlesque or conversation; and applied to any thing a man likes, without a settled meaning. 1767 H. Kelly, etc., Babler I. 261 Every dish which was added..was looked upon as an addition to the merit of the entertainer; and he that was a clever fellow with a Turbot was still cleverer if he could furnish a John Dory. 1833 Men & Manners in America I. vii. 233, I heard of a gentleman having moved into a clever house, of another succeeding to a clever sum of money, of a third embarking in a clever ship and making a clever voyage with a clever cargo. c 1857 in Lower Norfolk Co. (Va.) Antiquare I. 110 John Savage..promised to do something clever for them. 1858 in Kansas Hist. Coll. (1896) V. 567 On the night before last these same men attacked Barnesville, quite a clever town, on the military road. |
c. Of persons: Good-natured, well-disposed; amiable. U.S. colloq.; cf. English ‘a nice man’.
| 1758 in Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. XII. 148 This afternoon secured a place to have ye Small Pox in, with a very clever family. 1773 Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. i. ii, Then come, put the jorum about, And let us be merry and clever. 1781 Witherspoon in Pennsylv. Jrnl. 9 May, He is a very clever man. She is quite a clever woman... In these cases Americans generally mean by clever, only goodness of disposition, worthiness, integrity, without the least regard to capacity. 1804 W. Austin Lett. London 68 note, Clever in New England means honest, conscientious. 1822 J. Flint Lett. Amer. 77 The landlord told me that..Where a family seem to be poor and clever, he does not charge any thing for their sleeping on the floor. (By clever, he meant honest, or of a good disposition.) 1839 Marryat Diary Amer. Ser. i. II. 223 A clever person in America means an amiable good-tempered person. 1846 Worcester s.v., In the United States, the phrase ‘clever man’, or ‘clever fellow’, is employed to denote a person of good nature, good disposition or good intentions. 1883 Eggleston Hoosier School-Boy xviii. 119, I wanted to say that you fellows have always..been ‘clever’ to me, and I don't want to see no harm done you. 1891 Harper's Mag. July 220/2 It is an Americanism to call him clever whom we deem good-natured only. |
9. Comb. clever-boots [cf. boots1 3], -clogs, -sides, -sticks, etc., a clever or smart person, a wiseacre (colloq. and dial.: see E.D.D.); clever-clumsy a., denoting a person who is both clever and clumsy; so clever-silly n. (hence clever-silliness), clever-stupid adj.
| 1847 Halliwell Provinc. Words, Cleverboots, a clever person, generally in a satirical sense. 1955 Times Lit. Suppl. 9 Dec. 742/3 Mallarmé is the promising pupil..Rimbaud the overweening cleverboots whom the critics have insufficiently chastised. |
| 1866 Mrs. E. Lynn Linton Lizzie Lorton II. i. 10 She..left the explanation to those ‘clever clogs’ who pretended to understand the ins and outs of the gravest mysteries of life. 1983 Listener 3 Feb. 17/1 On each double-spread billing page it is three columns to the populars and eight for the clever-clogs. |
| 1854 A. E. Baker Northants. Gloss. I. 124 Clever-clumsy, an ironical term of reproof to a person who sets about anything eagerly and performs it awkwardly. 1928 D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatt. vii. 87 Our little lot of clever-jacks, all at the intelligence-age of seven. 1937 H. G. Wells Star Begotten i. 6 She told him not to try and be a Mr Cleverkins. He did his best not to be Mr Cleverkins. 1965 New Statesman 20 Aug. 266/1 Some cleverkin has written in heart-warming wee scenes between her and her prey. |
| 1886 H. Baumann Londinismen 27/1 Clever shins, Schülersprache: Schlauberger. 1951 Partridge Dict. Slang (ed. 4) Add., Cleversides, schoolchildren's (..mainly North Country) coll[oquial]: synonym, often ironical, of clever person: late C. 19–20. 1959 I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren x. 179 A clever boy is most often styled a ‘clever-dick’, or, less frequently: brainy pup..cleverguts, cleverpot, cleversides, cleversticks..know-all. |
| 1948 Mind LVII. 141 That impression of thinness and clever-silliness which sometimes characterises the productions of highly intelligent writers. |
| 1946 Mind LV. 173 The ‘clever-sillies’ or the ‘half-baked intellectuals’. 1964 C. Mackenzie My Life & Times III. ii. 44 Some cleversticks had climbed up a plane-tree to get a better view. |
| 1911 F. Swinnerton Casement i. 58 Like many clever-stupid people, Olivia often underrated the intelligence of her associates. |
B. quasi-adv. a. Neatly, skilfully. See also to box clever, box v.2 2 d. b. Completely, quite, clean (dial.; cf. cleverly 5).
| 1664 Cotton Poet. Wks. (1765) 19 And lifted them sheer off, as clever As he had had a Crow or Lever. 1693 J. Clayton Acc. Virginia in Misc. Cur. (1708) III. 286 The Secretary of State assured me, it had frozen clever over Potomack River. 1793 E. Parsons Woman as she should be II. 211 You manage devilish clever to keep them together. 1881 Leicestersh. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Clever through, right through, straight through. Macaulay, Antiq. of Claybrook 1791, quotes, ‘I shall go next ways clever through Ullesthorpe’. 1959 J. Cary Captive & Free 68 Meanwhile it was obviously dangerous to take sides. He must play clever. |
▪ II. clever
var. of claver v.1, to clamber.
▪ III. clever(e
obs. form of cleavers.