核心畫面

You can picture a mind that catches on fast — it takes something in, sees how it works, and figures things out quickly. That quick, sharp mind is the picture the other senses stretch out from.

可以想成一顆「轉得快」的腦袋:東西看一眼就懂,很快抓到怎麼運作、怎麼解。clever 的核心畫面比較像這種反應快、腦更多收起可以想成一顆「轉得快」的腦袋:東西看一眼就懂,很快抓到怎麼運作、怎麼解。clever 的核心畫面比較像這種反應快、腦筋靈的聰明,其他用法都是從這裡延伸出去的。

Three branches

腦筋靈光

這一組直接就是核心:都在講腦子好用。差別只在這聰明用在哪——用來學東西,還是用來替自己盤算。

quick to learn · adjective · A1

Good at learning and understanding things quickly.

聰明

手巧與設計巧

把「腦子靈」搬到手上和做出來的東西上:聰明不只在想,也顯在做得漂亮、設計得巧。

skillful with hands · adjective · A1

Good at doing something that needs skill with your hands or body.

靈巧

反諷與惹人厭的聰明

同一個「聰明」被反著用:故意誇你聰明其實是笑你笨,或者嫌一個人聰明得太愛現、惹人厭。字面還是聰明,語氣卻整個翻過來。

clever (sarcastic) · adjective · A1

Said in a joking way to point out that someone just did something silly.

真「聰明」(反話)

原始詞典資料13 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法,原文照列,我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的;有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

Clevername

  • 1

    A city in Missouri.

cleveradj/ˈklɛv.ə/

  • 1

    Nimble with hands or body; dexterous; skillful; adept.

    • My dad is quite clever with his hands, especially at carpentry.
    • a. 1898, Francis James Child (collator), Child's Ballads, 198: "Bonny John Seton", The Highland men, they're clever men At handling sword and shield,
  • 2

    Quick to understand, learn, and devise or apply ideas; intelligent.

    • The cleverest and most prolific inventors, such as Reiner Knizia (who lives in England) are nerdy superstars. Euro (also “German-style”) games must not be confused with “Ameritrash” games, which generally involve high drama and employ plastic pieces, though arguing over what the difference is seems to be gamers' second-favourite pastime.
  • 3

    Mentally quick and resourceful; skilled at achieving what one wants in a mentally agile and inventive way.

    • clever like a fox
    • With a clever lawyer, she could easily be acquitted.
  • 4

    Smart, intelligent, or witty; mentally quick or sharp.

    • And so make life, death, and that vast forever / One grand, sweet song.
    • Lord Macaulay has said of Bunyan: “though there were many clever men in England during the latter half of the seventeenth century, there were only two great creative minds. One of these minds produced ‘The Paradise Lost;’ the other, ‘The Pilgrim's Progress.’”
  • 5

    archaicSane; in one's right mind.

    • He was not clever, poor fellow, he did not know what questions to ask; he asked the same questions again and again. He continued to show his own troubled thoughts, and the vague dread in his mind, […]
  • 6

    Showing mental quickness and resourcefulness.

    • This is a simple but clever trick to solve the problem.
    • Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.[…]Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising colossal bonuses to sitting chief executives if they meet ambitious growth targets. That model is still prevalent today.
  • 7

    Showing inventiveness or originality; witty.

    • Mr. Woodhouse was almost as much interested in the business as the girls, and tried very often to recollect something worth their putting in. "So many clever riddles as there used to be when he was young--he wondered he could not remember them! but he hoped he should in time." And it always ended in "Kitty, a fair but frozen maid."
    • I felt they expected me to say clever things, and I never could think of any till after the party was over.
  • 8

    Fit and healthy; free from fatigue or illness.

    • But at that moment I knew it was all over for me, I had never thought that this day would come, but it had and I was not feeling too clever. In fact I had to escape to a nearby toilet to be sick.
    • Right, and no, because the solicitor has told her that Walter's legs didn't look too clever, which, apparently, everyone's putting down to a fall, thankfully.
另外 4 個記錄的用法
  • 9

    datedGood-natured; obliging.

  • 10

    anthropologyhuman-sciencessciencesPossessing magical abilities.

    • When a clever man is out hunting and comes across the tracks of, say, a kangaroo, he follows them along and talks to the footprints all the time for the purpose of injecting magic into the animal which made them.
    • Prior to this, the two women, who were “clever,” and possessed a certain amount of magical “power,”[…].
  • 11

    obsoleteFit; suitable; having propriety.

    • 18th c, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope (later lines), Imitation of Horace, 1852, Charles Knight (collator), Half-hours with the Best Authors, Volume 4, page 188, I can't but think 'twould sound more clever, To me and to my heirs forever.
  • 12

    obsoleteWell-shaped; handsome.

    • Tho' the Girl vvas a tight, clever VVench as any vvas, and thro' her pale Looks, you might diſcern Spirit and Vivacity, vvhich made her not indeed a perfect Beauty, but ſomething that vvas agreeable.

資料來源:英文維基詞典 English WiktionaryCC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。