knavery
Americannoun
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action or practice characteristic of a knave.
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unprincipled, untrustworthy, or dishonest dealing; trickery.
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a knavish act or practice.
noun
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a deceitful or dishonest act
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dishonest conduct; trickery
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of knavery
Explanation
The quality of acting like a villain or a rascal is knavery. You'll know that knavery happened last night if you wake to find toilet paper strung from the branches of your trees. The noun knavery comes from knave, an old-fashioned word meaning "rascal or rogue." Shakespeare was especially famous for using knave as an insult, and knavery reflects this sense of a foolish and terrible person who's up to no good. Dirty political tricks can be called knavery, as can rascally practical jokes, and even wickedness, dishonesty, and cruelty.
Vocabulary lists containing knavery
Wayne State Word Warriors Words to Rescue, 2014-2015 Edition
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Novel Study: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3
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Oliver Twist
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
From their study of English history, they learned what might be called the law of knavery: there aren’t any good ways to get rid of a bad king.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 21, 2019
“I only know that it is mixed, that you cannot separate good from bad, that wisdom, courage and benevolence exist alongside knavery, greed and stupidity; heroism and fortitude alongside vainglory, cruelty and corruption.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 14, 2018
He looks upon the Trojan War, and all the warriors who risk their lives in it, with a vision that strips all noble motives away and sees only lechery, roguery, and knavery.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 9, 2016
We like to think of our transgressions as caused less by our own knavery than by the wrong genes or maltreatment in childhood.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 7, 2011
I wish for some way to warn Cristiana of the new king’s knavery.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
Told in the fictitious third person of Jim's confidant and publicity man, it records the entire gamut of his knaveries, but gives him where possible the benefit of the doubt.
From Time Magazine Archive
They may take up Regnard without risking a fall; for there is little danger of being led astray by the picaresque knaveries of Scapin and Lisette.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 92, June, 1865 by Various
Ah! our knave has found his match in another, who has far better tricks in his sack, a thousand kinds of knaveries and of wily words.
From The Eleven Comedies, Volume 1 by Aristophanes
What could I see but sons and grandsons playing over the same knaveries that I have seen their fathers and grandfather's act?
From The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 1 by Cunningham, Peter
Bought and sold he was; and of course it is understood that, if you buy a knave, and expressly in consideration of his knaveries, you secretly undertake not to hang him.
From Note Book of an English Opium-Eater by De Quincey, Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
