a. 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 E.Fris. 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.]
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, Lett., 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. Of persons: Possessing skill or talent; able to use hand or brain readily and effectively; dexterous, skilful; adroit. (The current sense.)
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.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Fables, 31 (J.). It was the Cleverer Mockery of the Two.
1782. Mad. D’Arblay, 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. G. Lloyd, Ebb & Flow, I. 30. Half a dozen clever sketches of views in India.
II. Nimble, active, lithe, neat, handsome.
4. 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.
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.
5. Lithe of limb, clean-limbed, well-made; lithe, handsome. Now dial., also in U.S.
1674. Ray, S. & E. C. Words [see 6, and cf. 1840.]
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.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull, ii. (J.). He call’d her Lousy Peg: Tho’ 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. 184. 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. Of persons: Good-natured, well-disposed; amiable. U.S. colloq.; cf. English ‘a nice man.’
1773. Goldsm., Stoops to Conq., I. ii. Then come, put the jorum about, And let us be merry and clever.
1804. W. Austin, Lett. fr. London, 68, note. Clever, in New England, means honest, conscientious.
1822. J. Flint, Lett. fr. 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.
B. quasi-adv. † a. Neatly, skilfully (obs.). 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. Eliza 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.’
Clever, var. of CLAVER v.1, to clamber.
Clever(e, obs. form of CLEAVER(S.
