Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Knavish |
KnavishAdjective1. Marked by skill in deception; "cunning men often pass for wise"; "deep political machinations"; "a foxy scheme"; "a slick evasive answer"; "sly as a fox"; "tricky Dick"; "a wily old attorney". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "knavish" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1350. (references) |
Synonyms: KnavishSynonyms: crafty (adj), cunning (adj), dodgy (adj), foxy (adj), guileful (adj), slick (adj), sly (adj), tricksy (adj), tricky (adj), wily (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Improbity | Adjective: dishonest, dishonorable; unconscientious, unscrupulous; fraudulent; knavish; disgraceful; (disreputable); wicked. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Knavish |
| English words defined with "knavish": Knavess, KNavishness ♦ Scampish ♦ Trickish. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "knavish": Goodfellow ♦ Jupiter Scapin ♦ Owlglass. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "knavish": Stellionate. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Knavish" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Knavish" is used about 8 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 8 | 124,375 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "knavish": knavish trick. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
knavish | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "knavish"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | i pandershëm (base, conscienceless, dark, devious, dirty, dishonest, disreputable, ill gotten, mean, rascally, raw, roguish, unfaithful, unscrupulous, unsportsmanlike). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | мошенически (dishonest, fast, fraudulent, phoney, phony, rascally, roguish, scoundrelly, tricky). (various references) | |
Czech | darebácký (naughty, roguish). (various references) | |
Finnish | konnamainen (villainous), roistomainen (villainous). (various references) | |
French | de filou. (various references) | |
German | schurkisch (base, despicable, rascally, roguish). (various references) | |
Greek | κατεργάρικοσ (son of a gun, trickish, tricky), άτιμοσ (coward, dishonest, ignominious, infamous, inglorious, rogue), απατεωνιστικόσ. (various references) | |
Hungarian | gaz (nefarious, rascally, roguish, scoundrelly, villainous, weed), becstelen (dishonest, dishonorable, dishonourable, ignominious, infamous, nefarious, shabby, snide, stigmatic, unprincipled, unrighteous), aljas (blackguard, caitiff, dastardly, depraved, despicable, dirty mean, felon, flagitious, foul, grovelling, infamous, low down, nefarious, perfidious, scrounging, scummy, scurvied, scurvy, shabby, sordid, villainous). (various references) | |
Italian | disonesto (bent, crooked, dishonest, foul, nasty, unfrank), da briccone. (various references) | |
Manx | steetagh (peep, peeping, prying, sneaking), cleaysagh (tricky), cleaderagh. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | avishknay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | velhaco (arrant knave, caitiff, deceiver, loon, machiavellian, rip, rogue, roguish, slyboots, wheeler-dealer), tratante (kite, knave, loon, ne'er-do-well, picaroon, rascal, rogue, roguish, scamp, scapegrace, sinner, sirrah, spalpeen, vagabond, wheeler-dealer), garoto (blackguard, boy, chit, kid, kiddy, rascal, rotter, snipe), desonesto (cambered, crooked, devious, dishonest, drossy, false, immodest, impure, light-fingered, low-down, nasty, shady, sharp, shifty, thievish, tortuous, unchaste, unfair, unfaithful, untrustworthy). (various references) | |
Romanian | ticãlos (a bad egg, base, cad, canting, cur, dark, dirty, felon, foul, heel, hound, impious, kite, knave, knavishly, low-minded, mean, meanly, miscreant, paltry, perverse, picaroon, rapscallion, rascal, rascally, recreant, reprobate, ruffian, scab, scabby, scamp, scoundrel, scurvy, serpentine, shabby, skunk, sneak, sneaking, vile, villain, villainous, wretch, wretched), netrebnic (a dirty dog, good for nothing, knave, picaroon, rascal, reprobate, scab, sneak, useless, vile, villain, worthless, wretch), necinstit (crooked, dirty, dishonest, dishonestly, disingenuous, faithless, foul, fraudulent, knavishly, low down, meretricious, perfidious, raw, rotten, unfair, unfaithful, unlawful), drãcos (roguish), de pungaş, de escroc. (various references) | |
Russian | мошеннический (dishonest, fraudulent, rascally). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | podmukao (insidious, perfidious, trappy, treacherous, underhand), podao (abject, caitiff, lousy, low down, scurvy, vile), nepošten (crooked, devious, dishonest, immoral, underhand, underhanded, unprincipled, unscrupulous). (various references) | |
Swedish | skurkstreck (knavery, skulduggery, skullduggery, villainy), skurkaktig (miscreant, miscreated, roguish, ruffianly, villainous). (various references) | |
Thai | ไม่ซื่อสัตย์. (various references) | |
Turkish | hilekâr (cheat, cheater, con, con man, crooked, cross, deceitful, deceiver, double-tongued, faithless, foul, fraud, fraudulent, funk, gadgety, guileful, hard boiled, trickster, twister), üçkâğıtçı (blackleg, cheat, chiseler, chiseller, confidence man, confidence trickster, grifter, guileful, humbug, knave, sharper, swindler, trickish, trickster, tricksy, tricky, wangler). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | nghịch ác, lừa bịp; đểu giả, lừa đảo (deceiful, swindlingly). (various references) | |
Welsh | cnafaidd (rascally). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | malitiosus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "knavish": knavishly. (additional references) | |
| |
"Knavish" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: kanish, Kanrith, konavli, Naivasha, Napisah, navis, Navuth, nicish, nivis. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "knavish" (pronounced 'Knav"ish'): Abolish, Admonish, Affamish, Alish, Amateurish, Apish, Aspish, Assish, Astonish, Babish, Baboonish, Balkish, Banish, Bardish, Basquish, Bearish, Beauish, Blackish, Blockish, Bluish, Bluntish, Boarish, Bookish, Boorish, Boyish, Brackish, Brainish, Brinish, Broadish, Brockish, Brownish, Buccaneerish, Buckish, Buffoonish, Bullish, Calvish, Cavalierish, Cherish, Childish, Churlish, Clayish, Clownish, Coldish, Coltish, Coolish, Coyish, Czarish, Dampish, Danish, Dankish. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-h-i-k-n-s-v" | |
-1 letter: vanish. | |
-2 letters: ankhs, haiks, hanks, kains, khans, kinas, kivas, knish, savin, shank, shiva, vinas. | |
-3 letters: ains, akin, anis, ankh, haik, hank, hins, hisn, inks, kain, khan, khis, kina, kins, kiva, kvas, sain, saki, sank, shin, shiv, sinh, sink, skin, vain, vans, vina, visa. | |
-4 letters: ain, ais, ani, ash, ask, has, hin, his, ink, ins. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-h-i-k-n-s-v" | |
+2 letters: knavishly. | |
+5 letters: thanksgiving. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Translations: Ancient 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
