Reynardian

English

Adjective

Reynardian (not comparable)

1. Of or pertaining to the folk character of Reynard the fox and his mannerisms; cunning.

   Synonyms: cunning, shrewd, sly fox, sly as a fox

   • 1888, The Harvard Advocate, page 130:

     Common sense compels us to believe that the whole affair was merely a ruse by which Yale, with true Reynardian craft, hoped to win the cup.

   • 1909, A beautiful rebel: a romance of Upper Canada in eighteen hundred and twelve, page 200:

     This was Mr. Fox's position ; but he was not a man to submit tamely to an adverse fate — even the fox when driven to the wall will show his teeth — and his human name-sake was not false to this Reynardian quality.

   • 2017, Moonglow : a novel, page 332:

     The Chabon kid had that Reynardian way of looking inattentive when he was measuring someone—in this case, my mother—to the millimeter.