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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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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]
WordNet (r) 2.0
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
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
adroit, clever, cunning, imaginative, inventive
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