Idiom
too clever by half
Meaning
Shrewd but flawed by overthinking or excessive complexity, with a resulting tendency to be unreliable or unsuccessful.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He is too clever by half and often makes silly mistakes.”
“The consultant tried to impress the board with a complex strategy, but he was too clever by half and ignored the basic facts.”
“While his intricate plan initially seemed brilliant, he proved to be too clever by half, as his over-complicated logic eventually caused the entire project to collapse.”
Examples
simple
“He is too clever by half and often makes silly mistakes.”
contextual
“The consultant tried to impress the board with a complex strategy, but he was too clever by half and ignored the basic facts.”
complex
“While his intricate plan initially seemed brilliant, he proved to be too clever by half, as his over-complicated logic eventually caused the entire project to collapse.”
Key words
Related idioms
- Updated