1quick to understand, learn, and devise or apply ideas; intelligent:she was an extremely clever and studious young womanhow clever of him to think of this!
skilled at doing or achieving something; talented:he was very clever at getting what he wantedboth Grandma and Mother were clever with their hands
showing skill and originality; ingenious:a simple but clever idea for helping people learn computinghe taught the dog to perform some very clever tricks
[usually with negative] informal sensible; well advised:Joe had a feeling it wasn’t too clever, leaving Dolly alone
2 [predic., with negative]British informal healthy or well:I was up and about by this time though still not too clever
too clever by half
informal (of a person) annoyingly proud of their intelligence or skill, and liable to overreach themselves:he always was too clever by half
