Ingenious

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Ingenious \In*gen"ious\, a. [L. ingeniosus, fr. ingenium innate
     or natural quality, natural capacity, genius: cf. F.
     ing['e]nieux. See {Engine}.]
     1. Possessed of genius, or the faculty of invention; skillful
        or promp to invent; having an aptitude to contrive, or to
        form new combinations; as, an ingenious author, mechanic.


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              A man . . . very wise and ingenious in feats of war.
                                                    --Hakluyt.
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              Thou, king, send out
              For torturers ingenious.              --Shak.
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              The more ingenious men are, the more apt are they to
              trouble themselves.                   --Sir W.
                                                    Temple.
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     2. Proceeding from, pertaining to, or characterized by,
        genius or ingenuity; of curious design, structure, or
        mechanism; as, an ingenious model, or machine; an
        ingenious scheme, contrivance, etc.
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              Thus men go wrong with an ingenious skill. --Cowper.
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     3. Witty; shrewd; adroit; keen; sagacious; as, an ingenious
        reply.
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     4. Mental; intellectual. [Obs.]
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              A course of learning and ingenious studies. --Shak.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  ingenious
       adj 1: (used of persons or artifacts) marked by independence and
              creativity in thought or action; "an imaginative use
              of material"; "the invention of the knitting frame by
              another ingenious English clergyman"- Lewis Mumford;
              "an ingenious device"; "had an inventive turn of
              mind"; "inventive ceramics" [syn: {imaginative}, {inventive}]
       2: skillful (or showing skill) in adapting means to ends; "cool
          prudence and sensitive selfishness along with quick
          perception of what is possible--these distinguish an
          adroit politician"; "came up with a clever story"; "an
          ingenious press agent"; "an ingenious scheme" [syn: {adroit},
           {clever}]
       3: showing inventiveness and skill; "a clever gadget"; "the
          cunning maneuvers leading to his success"; "an ingenious
          solution to the problem" [syn: {clever}, {cunning}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  125 Moby Thesaurus words for "ingenious":
     Daedalian, Machiavellian, Machiavellic, acute, adept, adroit, apt,
     arch, artful, artistic, astute, authoritative, bravura, bright,
     brilliant, cagey, canny, clean, clever, conceptive, conceptual,
     coordinated, crack, crackerjack, crafty, creative, cunning, cute,
     daedal, deceitful, deep, deep-laid, deft, demiurgic, designing,
     dexterous, dextrous, diplomatic, esemplastic, excellent, expert,
     fancy, fecund, feline, fertile, foxy, germinal, gifted, good,
     goodish, graceful, guileful, handy, ideational, ideative,
     imaginative, innovational, innovative, insidious, inspired,
     inventive, keen, knowing, magisterial, masterful, masterly, neat,
     no mean, notional, on the ball, original, originative, pawky,
     politic, pregnant, productive, professional, proficient, prolific,
     quick, quite some, ready, resourceful, scheming, seminal,
     serpentine, shaping, sharp, shifty, shrewd, skilled, skillful,
     slick, slim, slippery, sly, smart, smooth, snaky, sneaky, some,
     sophistical, statesmanlike, stealthy, strategic, stylish, subtile,
     subtle, supple, tactful, tactical, talented, teeming, the compleat,
     the complete, trickish, tricksy, tricky, virtuoso, visioned,
     vulpine, wary, well-done, wily, workmanlike