Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Experienced in the ways of the world.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Wise with reference to the affairs of this world.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Wise in regard to things of this world.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
experienced in the ways of the world;sophisticated andcosmopolitan
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective experienced in and wise to the ways of the world
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Upon their return from the wilderness, our young vagrants are transformed or reformed into worldly-wise Westerners.
Ben Colclough: Why Do We Travel? Ben Colclough 2011
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But what of the complacency of older generations: the worldly-wise who've "been there, done that" with drugs or think they have.
It's older people's attitude to drugs that is a killer | Barbara Ellen 2012
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He went to a two-year trade school instead of high school, but I always thought of him as very worldly-wise and intelligent.
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I couldn't tell if they were supposed to be consciously playing the naifs or not; everyone had at least hit their mid-twenties — and obviously thought of themselves as “worldly-wise” types to no small degree — so I wasn't quite sure how to take this.
Ennui Christopher Snyder 2010
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I couldn't tell if they were supposed to be consciously playing the naïfs or not; everyone had at least hit their mid-twenties — and obviously thought of themselves as “worldly-wise” types to no small degree — so I wasn't quite sure how to take this.
Boredom & Ennui Christopher Snyder 2011
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Upon their return from the wilderness, our young vagrants are transformed or reformed into worldly-wise Westerners.
Ben Colclough: Why Do We Travel? Ben Colclough 2011
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Apparently when sophistry was being bandied about as a pre-Socratic school of philosophy in ancient Greece someone who set out to become worldly-wise long ago they came back with new ideas on religion, societal mores and sexual alternatives, thus becoming perverted and corrupted to the values and practices of their own culture.
Tim Hanni: Pervsion, Corruption and Wine Appreciation Tim Hanni 2010
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Apparently when sophistry was being bandied about as a pre-Socratic school of philosophy in ancient Greece someone who set out to become worldly-wise long ago they came back with new ideas on religion, societal mores and sexual alternatives, thus becoming perverted and corrupted to the values and practices of their own culture.
Tim Hanni: Pervsion, Corruption and Wine Appreciation Tim Hanni 2010
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To cause to become less natural, esp. to make less naïve and cause to be worldly-wise.
Tim Hanni: Pervsion, Corruption and Wine Appreciation Tim Hanni 2010
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It will be the sort of day when his inexperience hangs heavily, but if he wants to feel worldly-wise, he only has to glance across at Ajmal Shahzad.
England's Steven Finn at home but Ajmal Shahzad has capital capers David Hopps at Lord 2010
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