1. Characterized by keen awareness, sharp intelligence, and often a sense of the practical: Someone has said that shrewd investors should hold their stocks until prices increase again.
2. A tendency toward artful and cunning practices; tricky: The shrewd lender of money made it difficult for many people to repay their debts to him at a reasonable cost.
3. Astute or sharp in practical matters: The senator was a shrewd politician who was able to get many laws or legislative bills passed in congress.
4. Etymology: the term shrewd originally meant "wicked, dangerous". Its modern application as "astute" developed in the 16th century.

It was derived from shrew, "wicked man" and is generally believed to be from the same origin as the animal named the shrew which was originally thought to have a poisonous bite and was therefore feared as being wicked or bad.

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