Dictionary

nimble-witted en · ADJ

Meanings

1. Quick-witted.
   • The nimble-witted Miller had already smelt where I was travelling to, and made haste to get on the same road. 1893, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 17, in Catriona, London: Thomas Nelson, pages 203–204:
   • Forth rusheth Sathan by and by, and of a gnatte maketh more then an Elephant of India, and of a very litle geometriall point, draweth forth an infinite Sphere: so ingenious, & nimble witted is Dame Slaunder. 1581, Walter Haddon et al., translated by James Bell, Against Ierome Osorius Byshopp of Siluane in Portingall, London: John Daye, Book 3, p. 381b:
   • Then Fitzstephan went to Whidden with an offer of a thousand dollars for Eric’s murder. Whidden refused at first, but he wasn’t nimble-witted, and Fitzstephan could be persuasive enough, so the bargain had been made. 1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 23, in The Dain Curse:

Forms

Deriveds

nimble-wittedness