Green’s Dictionary of Slang

cunning adj.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

cunning man (n.) [note dial. cunning woman, a witch]

1. a confidence trickster who used a (spurious) knowledge of astrology to help to convince his or (more often) her victims; the preferred swindle was the ‘miraculous’ recovery of stolen goods.

[UK]Jonson Bartholomew Fair I ii: Sir, my mother has had her nativity-water cast lately by the cunning men in Cow-lane, and they ha’ told her her fortune.
[UK]Trial of Elizabeth Canning in Howell State Trials (1816) 485: I was wringing my hands and tearing about, and she advised me to go to the cunning man [ibid.] 493: What cunning man was that that lived in the Old-Bailey?—He used to tell fortunes.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Cunning Man a Cheat who pretends by his Skill in Astrology to assist persons in Recovering Stoln Goods, & also to tell them their future Fortune, as when, how often & to to wjhom they shall be married, &c.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Cunning Man. A cheat, who pretends by his skill in astrology to assist persons in recovering stolen goods: and also to tell them their fortunes, and when, how often, and to whom they shall be married; likewise answers all lawful questions, both by sea and land. This profession is frequently occupied by ladies.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Morn. Chron. (London) 18 Oct. 3/1: The Cunning man could not, with all his foresight, forsee the work that was about to take place.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]Hants Advertiser 26 Apr. 2/6: [headline] Conviction of the ‘Cunning Man’ of Rolvendon.

2. a trial judge.

[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Fortune teller, or cunning man, a judge, who tells every prisoner his fortune, lot, or doom; to go before the fortune teller, lambskin man, or conjuror, to be tried at an assize.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
cunning shaver (n.) [shaver n.1 (1), but also one who ‘shaves his victims close’]

a clever cheat.

[UK]B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Cunning shaver, a sharp fellow, one that trims close, i.e. cheats ingeniously.
[UK]Morn. Post (London) Alderman Curtis’s Barber takes all the credit fore the punctuality with which his master’s Government Securities are always paid. Clerks in office never trifle with a cunning shaver: .
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]Belfast News Letter 15 Jan. 1/4: Allan, who had bustled up from a barber’s shop into a bookseller’s, was a ‘cunning shaver’.
[UK]Hants Teleg. 4 July 6/6: Faugh! Captain Seaver, you cunning shaver. You gay deceiver.
[Scot]Dundee, Perth & Cupar Advertiser 22 Mar. 4/5: The aggrieved party instantly acted [...] and knocked the cunning shaver into a bedroom.
[UK]E. de la Bédollière Londres et les Anglais 313/2: cunning shaver, [...] filou dont les ruses sont habilement combinées.

In phrases

cunning as a Maori dog (adj.) (also cunning as a Maori hen) [racially derog. comparison]

(N.Z.) very cunning.

J. Cowan Travel in N.Z. II 63: ‘As cunning as a Maori hen’ [i.e. weka] is a familiar New Zealand bush simile.
[NZ]D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 239: Innocent as a child and cunning as a Maori dog, Bert had once called him.
M. Scott Breakfast at Six 30: ‘Cunning as a Maori dog’, supplemented Sam vulgarly.
[NZ]G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 91: Cunning as a Maori dog. Too right he is.
Australasian Universal Dict. I: ‘As cunning as a Maori dog’ is a common simile in New Zealand, although there is not the same local flavour in the slang there.
M. Hayward Diary of the Kirk Years (1981) 30: He’s told us about being at a Maori gathering when a pakeha said unthinkingly, ‘He’s as cunning as a Maori dog’. It appeared to have gone unnoticed until a Maori remarked, ‘He’s as cunning as a pakeha dog’ [DNZE].
[NZ]McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl.
[[NZ]Dominion (Wellington) 7 June 44: He denied a magazine article which questioned Tatarangi’s will to win. ‘I’d say that [another Maori golfer] [sic] Michael Campbell will turn out the better of the two. He’s got more “Maori dog” in him,’ the latest issue of New Zealand Golf quotes the official as saying [DNZE]].
www.kiwiblog.co.nz 26 Aug. [blog] What do you expect from these anti euro thieves, none so cunning as a maori dog, hehe, but this lil doggie got caught.
cunning as a (whole) wagon-load of monkeys (adj.) (also artful as a (whole) wagon-load of monkeys, cunning as a cartload of monkeys)

very cunning.

[UK]C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 185: ‘Handsome Jack,’ who was always reckoned to be as artful as a waggon load of monkeys.
[UK]Derby Dly Teleg. 15 Dec. 4/3: He could swerve, and he could be as cunning as a wagon load of monkeys.
[UK]Breton & Bevir Adventures of Mrs. May 206: You’re as artful as a wagon load of monkeys.
Yorks Eve Post 14 Mar. 10/4: These hermit rats [...] are very clean and more cunning than a wagon load of monkeys.
[Aus]I.L. Idriess One Wet Season 247: They’re as cunning as a wagon-load of monkeys, Jack.
[NZ]G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 158: Luckiest player I ever saw, said old Bert. Cunninger than a cartload of monkeys.