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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Ingenious \In*gen"ious\, adjective [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.
A man . . . very wise and ingenious in feats of war. --Hakluyt.
Thou, king, send out For torturers ingenious. --Shak.
The more ingenious men are, the more apt are they to trouble themselves. --Sir W. Temple.
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.
Thus men go wrong with an ingenious skill. --Cowper.
3. Witty; shrewd; adroit; keen; sagacious; as, an ingenious reply.
4. Mental; intellectual. [Obs.]
A course of learning and ingenious studies. --Shak.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
ingenious
adjective
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
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