adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a clever device (= made using a clever idea )
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This clever little device rings to tell you where you left your keys.
a clever idea
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It seemed like a clever idea at the time.
a clever lawyer
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A clever lawyer may get a case against his client dropped because of a technicality.
cunning/clever/ingenious
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They devised a cunning plan to get back their money.
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The gang devised a cunning plan to rob the bank.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
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But like every other species, including the human, the bee is just as clever as it needs to be.
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Short answer: The inside is as clever as the outside.
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Most missiles with pretensions to cleverness are brighter than a laser-guided bomb, but not as clever as a Tomahawk.
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Now it's time for the kill, and the final twists are as clever as they are gripping.
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And as ruthless, and as clever .
extremely
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Coleridge had developed an apparently relaxed, but in fact extremely clever style of blank verse.
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He was outrageously affected, flamboyantly homosexual, and extremely clever .
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No drugs were found on Guiding Lights but two extremely clever concealments were uncovered.
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Antony here is extremely clever and manipulative.
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She knew people with mental disorders could often be extremely clever at concealing them.
how
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If he won't go much higher up the ramp, we tell him how clever he is and take him away.
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You have no idea how clever he is.
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She drank and smiled. How clever of Charles to simplify the whole thing to its basics.
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What I like is how clever it is.
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You see how clever Stapleton was.
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Sometimes we just don't think about how clever we really are.
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Then she thought, How clever of Felix to say that he was a friend of my parents.
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We come to believe that good writing shows how clever we are.
more
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Besides, the newspapers wrote about politics in a more clever , sharper and faster way.
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I was just going to have to be more clever , more methodical in the way I went about it.
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You think you're better than I am in just about every way, more beautiful, more clever , more experienced.
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People who can present themselves well appear more clever , poised and promotable.
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Lilly had not been more beautiful than the other women who sought him, just more clever .
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Climbing in the rain makes you feel a lot more clever than it should rationally justify.
pretty
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But these are pretty clever boxes.
quite
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Actually, it's quite clever .
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No, no one in my country was quite clever enough to program intelligent agents.
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He was quite clever , Dad, in his way, but he had never had an education.
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The thing he's very good at is opening bottles and he's quite clever at other things, too.
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Well the rhyme was quite clever , but somehow it didn't have the prize-winning ring to it.
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I have had to start hiding my money, but he is quite clever at finding it.
rather
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Wheat skimming is rather cleverer than potato washing.
so
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I don't know when I've heard anything quite so clever !
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But Cara is so clever and she works so hard.
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It was so clever , his way of catching fish!
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She was so clever to have thought of it.
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Who would have thought the old man could be so clever ?
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Those claims no longer look so clever .
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We have become so clever: it has become so easy.
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You think you're so clever !
too
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You might be just a wee bit too clever for your own good now.
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But Blier is a little too clever , a little too wink-wink for his own good.
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Emma: Too clever by half, Or so the critics said, week in, week out.
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Oh no, Eloise Skipton was too clever for that.
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But Black is too clever for that and has gone into hiding, waiting for the pressure to ease up.
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According to her, he was too clever for his own good.
very
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However, for some one supposed to be very clever , he seemed to get a great deal of pleasure out of ordinary things.
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The child psychologists have gotten very clever .
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But he was a very clever , interesting man.
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If they go in and it turns out not to be very clever , the referendum covers their backs.
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Either that or it's some one very clever .
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I assured her that I was laughing because I was happy to be with them and because the story-teller was very clever .
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I respect George for doing this, and find it very clever for him.
■ NOUN
boy
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It is the stuff of ivory towers and only clever boys and girls are expected to reflect upon its themes.
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Molassi had listened to the conversation between the clever boy and the pretty lady.
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A clever boy , that, and was always Heuil's shadow.
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But Tony was not a clever boy .
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Like when he'd killed the clever boy , who had blasphemed the headster time.
girl
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A clever girl , though, Miss Morgan, an Exhibitioner like Francesca and a respectable second-class degree.
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She's a good, clever girl .
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The cleverest girls always knew the answer of course.
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She was a clever girl , to realise that there would never be another train in this station.
idea
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He had none of Monks' clever ideas .
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I can not remember half of the astonishingly clever ideas which they were working on.
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That too seemed quite natural, but it was a clever idea all the same.
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But clever ideas do not always translate into clever investments.Take the first-quarter results.
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None the less, many physicists agree that the new antenna is a simple, yet particularly clever idea .
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Readers' original gardening tips Has your clever idea won a £50 cash prize this month?
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Feedback is a very clever idea .
man
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The Earl of Bothwell - a strong, clever man .
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The abbot was a clever man .
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But he was a clever man , this burglar, and two prizes presented themselves for him today.
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He was a good strong, clever man , and he worked hard.
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He was a clever man and he wrote clever plays, but people still liked Will's plays best.
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Waiters made him feel a fool, this clever man .
people
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They believe that creative thought is only for clever people .
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There are also clever people who design and supply ready printed cards for their own patterns.
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These positions are usually filled by clever people , allowing both boys and girls to draw wrongful conclusions.
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Who to buy it for: clever people 7.
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Do not despise clever people , Mr Wormwood.
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Competition between very clever people to be first with the best answers yields the progress on which technological improvement depends.
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They are wonderfully clever people , of that there is little doubt, but wisdom seems to be in frighteningly short supply.
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Well madam, I don't like clever people !
trick
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You can do clever tricks too.
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It was a clever trick to give him time to choose his words.
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Both play a very clever trick which will answer the prayers of video users all round the world.
use
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By clever use of the medium and washes, all sorts of possibilities open up.
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At Griffith Park in 1939, Jimmy Demaret helped his cause in the third round by clever use of his wedge.
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This effect was created by the clever use of a pink filter.
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Much valuable data can be recovered by clever use of the flash answer.
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As in any mathematics teaching, clever use of questions can nudge people along.
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The union leaders appear to be building public support for their cause, with clever use of symbolic gestures and public relations.
way
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A clever way of stifling discussion and few could have done it so well.
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The accountants who continued to divine clever ways of justifying this structure?
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There is, however, a clever way in which matters otherwise irrelevant may be lightly introduced.
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The Dialogue Group was simply looking for a clever way to intimidate Ray.
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Doing the splits Others think they may have found a clever way out of their troubles: breaking themselves up.
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And they do so in a clever way .
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Of course, I might have known that you'd have some clever way of dealing with everything, though.
woman
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He could imagine the two clever women , and the delicate fencing.
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But, for heaven's sake, Laura, you're a clever woman .
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I appreciate you're a very clever woman , but then I never took you for a fool.
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She was both a clever woman and a fool at one and the same time.
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She is a clever woman , Madame Leonie.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
that's a good girl/that's a clever dog etc
there's a good boy/clever dog etc
too clever/rich/good etc by half
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The arithmetic can not be faulted - and may well be judged too clever by half .
too nice/clever etc for your own good
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According to her, he was too clever for his own good.
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That Tom was too nice for his own good.
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They were both too nice for their own good.
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You might be just a wee bit too clever for your own good now.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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a clever joke
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Ben Gurion was a cool, calculating and clever politician.
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Doug's always been clever at finding the best deals available.
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Gibson met a clever classmate who had built his own radio transmitter.
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I've thought of a really clever way of making money.
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In the story, the miller's daughter is a clever , beautiful girl.
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It is a clever device that can chop onions in seconds.
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It sounds like a clever idea. Do you think it'll work?
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My sister was always much cleverer than me at school.
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Tabloid reporters are very clever and persistent.
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That was very clever of you, How did you do that?
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They won the case by being clever and hiring influential lawyers to help them.
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Virtual Listening Systems have introduced one of the year's most unusual and clever new products.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Actually, it's quite clever .
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From the start it was conceived as a clever commercial package rather than a deeply personal film.
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He can be really clever when he wants to be.
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If he didn't, some clever lawyer would get the boy off on a technicality.
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She was clever , and he thought she was a bit too serious, although she had a sense of humour.
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They are clever work, but they merely represent a harnessing of this quantum effect.
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What I like is how clever it is.
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Who would have thought the old man could be so clever ?