too clever by half

Meaning: (idiomatic,of a person, plan, theory, etc.)Shrewdbutflawedbyoverthinkingorexcessivecomplexity, with a resulting tendency to beunreliableorunsuccessful.1890,Henry James, chapter 47, inThe Tragic Muse:[H]e had a damnable suppleness and a gift of immediate response, a readiness to oblige, that made him seem to take up causes which he really left lying, enabled him to learn enough about them in an hour to have all the air of having converted them to his use. . . . He was at all eventstoo clever by half, since this pernicious overflow had wrecked most of his attempts.1914,E. W. Hornung, chapter 8, inThe Crime Doctor:The poor devil wastoo clever by half, and made a big mistake for each of his strokes of genius.1993March 21,Robert Dallek, “Roosevelt Unbound”, inThe New York Times‎[1],→ISSN:Historians generally agree that Roosevelt wastoo clever by half, and that he miscalculated badly in assuming that he had the political muscle to alter the size of the Court.2011April 28, David Prosser, “Did Barclays' own executives see the bank coming?”, inThe Independent‎[2]:Still, the thing about being just a littletoo clever by halfis that it tends to catch up with you.2017October 20, Katharine Murphy, “At least for once, don't let politicking kill off a workable energy policy”, inThe Guardian‎[3],→ISSN:As Combet pointed out in 2009, that sort oftoo-clever-by-halfpoliticking can get you into trouble. It can sink the boat you really want to sail.

Examples:

EN: The gentleman was being too clever by half.
ES: El caballero se pasó de listo.
EN: He's too clever by half.
ES: Se está pasando de listo.
EN: Ah, she's too clever by half, that woman.
ES: Ah, es demasiado lista a medias, esa mujer.
EN: Bloody man Nehru is too clever by half. That's his trouble.
ES: El miserable Neru se cree muy listo, ése es el problema.
EN: - He says you're too clever by half.
ES: - Le cree demasiado inteligente.
EN: You're too clever by half.
ES: Es demasiado inteligente.
EN: These wretched councils are run by a bunch of corrupt morons who are too clever by half.
ES: Los ayuntamientos están en manos de paletos corruptos más listos de lo normal.
EN: Them priests, too clever by half.
ES: Ese cura, se cree muy listo.
EN: Kennedy, young, intelligent, and too clever by half, symbolized this.
ES: Kennedy, joven, inteligente y listo, simbolizaba esto.
EN: Your Luke Smith's too clever by half.
ES: Lucas Smith es demasiado inteligente.
EN: It was too clever by half. It was too superficial.
ES: Era casi demasiado ingeniosa, demasiado superficial.
EN: But you got too clever by half.
ES: Pero eres inteligente a medias.
EN: But you've been too clever by half.
ES: Pero te has pasado de lista.
EN: They're using a round-robin on an IP address, but it's too clever by half.
ES: Están utilizando una prueba circular en una dirección IP, pero es demasiado listo.
EN: He was too clever by half.
ES: Era demasiado inteligente a la mitad.

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