[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality of being clever.
1755. Johnson, Cleverness, dexterity, skill, accomplishment.
1809–10. Coleridge, Friend (1844), III. 69. By Cleverness … I mean a comparative readiness in the invention and use of means, for the realizing of objects and ideas … cleverness is a sort of genius for instrumentality. It is the brain in the hand.
1822. Hazlitt, Table-t., I. ix. 193. Cleverness is a certain knack or aptitude at doing certain things.
