Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The quality of being arch; slyness without malice; cunning; waggishness; roguishness; pleasing coyness: as, “dryness and archness of humour,”
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The quality of being arch; cleverness; sly humor free from malice; waggishness.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The state of being
arch ;cleverness .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun inappropriate playfulness
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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While a certain archness is built into any new analog electrpop, We Are Wolves makes it not just a joke, but a good sweaty joke.
CMJ Music Marathon: A Few Reasons to Like We Are Wolves - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com 2007
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While a certain archness is built into any new analog electrpop, We Are Wolves makes it not just a joke, but a good sweaty joke.
CMJ Music Marathon: A Few Reasons to Like We Are Wolves - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com 2007
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Byrne and Slim clearly see Marcos and Cumpas as more than just camp figures, but there's a certain archness to Here Lies Love that keeps us from really caring about their strange, sad story. —
Listen Up: Imelda Marcos, the musical? For Byrne, it's 'Love' 2010
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She was dressed with great simplicity, in plain frock, apron, and white cap, to represent a fair young Quakeress, and she sung a song about her lover with much "archness" -- a delightful quality in woman.
In Luck at Last Walter Besant 1868
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As for our Mr Westray, your Mr Westray, I should say now, "and she assumed that expression of archness which is considered appropriate to such occasions," I am sure he is a sound Churchman.
The Nebuly Coat John Meade Falkner 1895
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These words in this setting would surely set the teeth of many environmentalists to grinding but there's no irony or archness in Boomtown.
Dan Collins: Brooklyn Filmmaker's Boomtown Strikes it Rich Dan Collins 2011
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These words in this setting would surely set the teeth of many environmentalists to grinding but there's no irony or archness in Boomtown.
Dan Collins: Brooklyn Filmmaker's Boomtown Strikes it Rich Dan Collins 2011
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"Mockery, irony and archness," Mr. Armstrong says, "is not what we need."
Hidden Treasure Henrik Bering 2011
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As such, while clearly aspiring to the archness and oblique melodies of early Pavement, Mazes have unwittingly become a facsimile of the Wannadies, the amiable and irrepressible Swedish indie pop success story of the mid-90s.
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All Sayers's hallmarks are here – ingenuity, in-depth research (but without the hairballs of factual information that too often clogged up the originals), dialogue peppered with quotations, and archness of tone (but without the grating snobbery).
Laura Wilson's crime fiction choice - review Laura Wilson 2010
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