/ˈkæni/
OriginNorthern English dialect, from can (“to know”) ( + -y), from Middle English can, first and third person singular of cunnen, connen (“to be able, know how to”), from Old English cunnan (“to know how to, be able to”). Compare Scots canny, English cunny, Old English cann (“knowledge, assertion”). More at can, cunning.
- Careful, prudent, cautious.
“The politician gave a canny response to the reporter’s questions.”
“O! as thou art bonny, be prudent and canny,”
““Canny now, lads, canny now!” exclaimed old Mucklebackit, who acted as commodore; “swerve the yard a bit—Now—there! there she sits safe on dry land.””
- Knowing, shrewd, astute.
“The canny lawyer knew just how to get what he wanted.”
“‘Paris Hilton is A-list. She’s a genuinely really big star,’ said Professor Robert Thompson, a popular culture expert at Syracuse University. She’s also a canny money-making machine.”
“Then again, in war, politics and life, it’s always wiser to treat your adversary as a canny fox, not a crazy fool.”
- Frugal, thrifty.
“canny investments”
“Whate’er he wins, I’ll guide with canny care.”
- Northumbria, ScotlandFriendly, pleasant, fair, agreeable; (sometimes) funny.
“She’s a canny lass hor like!”
“But gie me a cannie hour at e’en,
My arms about my dearie O;
An’ warl’y cares, an’ warl’y men,
Mae a’ gae tapsalteerie O!”
- Northumbria, ScotlandGentle, quiet, steady.
“a canny horse”
“Be canny with this letter.”
- proscribedNatural, normal.
“I should have been glad to be assured that she prayed when on her knees, or read when that book was before her; I should have felt that she was more canny and human.”
““Live here with a lot of blooming performing animals! No fear,” they said. “And ghosts too,” some added with a shudder. “That’s what those Dryads really are. It’s not canny.””
- especiallySounding as if it is coming through a tin can.
“The rear sounds sounded canny compared to the front ones. And you also have to adjust the volume so both pair of speakers are at the same level, […]”
“I am using the stereo outs, I am getting nice reverb out of it but the probelm^([sic]) is the entire sound is like i said like its coming through a can. even when in bypass mode it sound "canny".
Than”
“I was approch. 3 meters from the stage and the sound was very good from there. But if you had seats way up at the sides or at the back I can understand that you could have experienced a "canny" sound.”
- Northumbria, not-comparableVery, considerably; quite, rather.
“a canny long journey”
“canny near home”
“That’s a canny big horse, man!”
- Northumbria, Scotland, not-comparableGently, quietly; carefully, skilfully.
“he sits very canny”
“drive canny”
Formscannier(comparative) · canniest(superlative) · Cannys(plural)