a. Forms: 1 cræftiʓ, 3 cræfti, crefti, crefty, 3–4 crafti, 4 craftye, krafty, (? carfti, carfty), 6–7 craftie, 4– crafty; 4 comp. crafteer, crafter; superl. craftest. [Common Teut.: OE. cræftiʓ = OS. craftag, -ig, OHG. chreftig, MHG. kreftic, G. kräftig, Du. krachtig, ON. kröptugr strong; deriv. of cræft, kraft, CRAFT: see -Y. The original Teutonic sense ‘strong, powerful’ scarcely appears in Eng.] Having or characterized by CRAFT.
† 1. Strong, powerful, mighty. Obs. rare.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., I. x. Swa earme wif and swa alþeodʓe hæfdon ʓegan þone cræftʓestan dæl … þises middanʓeardes.
a. 1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 9088. Þa wardes … Er mare crafty and strang þan any kan neven.
2. Skilful, dexterous, clever, ingenious. a. Of persons or their faculties, etc. arch. and dial.
971. Blickl. Hom., 49. Men … þe on æniʓum þingum cræftiʓ sy.
c. 1205. Lay., 22892. A crafti weorc-man.
c. 1275. O. E. Misc., 91. Þeos crefty clerkes þat vpe bok rede.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 8753 (Cott.). Sua wis was neuer nan; Ne crafteer [v.r. crafter] in werc of hand. Ibid., 5898 (Fairf.). Þe craftest [v.r. craftiest] of his iogelours.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys, Introd. (Roxb.), 3. Aftyr the scole of the crafty clerk Galfryd.
c. 1540. Pilgr. T., 425, in Thynne, Animadv., App. i. To mark the crafty wyttis That on both the partis hath set there delitis.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. xi. 69. They that suppose themselves wise, or crafty.
1791. Essay on Shooting (ed. 2), 249. It is very difficult to prevent the most crafty and best-trained dog, from pursuing hares.
1876. Morris, Sigurd, IV. 382. His crafty hands are busy, and the harp is murmuring yet.
1877. Holderness Gloss., Crafty, skilful, ingenious.
† b. Of things, actions, etc.: Showing skill or cleverness; skilfully wrought. Obs.
a. 1000. Byrhtferth, in Anglia, VIII. 321. To þam iungum munecum þe heora cildhad habbað abisʓod on cræftiʓum bocum.
c. 1205. Lay., 10355. Þe vfenen he makede scid wal wunder ane cræftie.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Can. Yeom. Prol. & T., 700. This discipline, and this crafty science.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 3665. A foure hundreth postis, With crafti coronals and clene.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1874), II. 274. The crafty Poesye of excellent virgyll.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, III. i. 22. Of this matter is little Cupids crafty arrow made.
3. In bad sense (the current use): a. Of persons or their faculties, etc.: Skilful in devising and carrying out underhand or evil schemes; cunning, artful, wily.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Can. Yeom. Prol. & T., 102. Sin that he is so crafty and so sly.
a. 1400[?]. Chester Pl. (Shaks. Soc.), 219. Thou craftye knave.
1526–34. Tindale, 2 Cor. xii. 16. I was crafty, and toke you with gile.
1659. B. Harris, Parival’s Iron Age, 163. Where the most crafty Cheats are held the best Politicians.
1788. Priestley, Lect. Hist., V. xxxviii. 272. The weak would … be at the mercy of the strong and the ignorant of the crafty.
1852. Miss Yonge, Cameos, II. i. 2. Robert d’Artois grew to man’s estate, crafty, courtly, ambitious, and unscrupulous.
b. Of actions, etc.: Showing craft or cunning.
a. 1225. Juliana, 34. Wite me from his [devil’s] lað ant wið his crefti crokes.
1512. Act 4 Hen. VIII., c. 17 § 2. Feyned suggestions and crafty Sutys unto his Grace made.
1595. Shaks., John, IV. i. 53. Nay, you may thinke my loue was craftie loue, And call it cunning.
1722. Sewel, Hist. Quakers (1795), II. IX. 420. This crafty trick.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 710. Had not his crafty schemes been disconcerted.
4. Comb., as crafty-headed adj.; † crafty-sick a., feigning sickness.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., Induct. 37. Where Hotspurres Father, old Northumberland, Lyes crafty sicke.
1610. A. Cooke, Pope Joan, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), IV. 55. A tale, devised long after by some crafty-headed hereticks.
