ept

Skillful and knowledgeable; adept.

Adjective

  1. Skillful and knowledgeable; adept.
    • These behaviors, developed in extremely bad basic and advanced training conditions were continued in better situations under more ept leadership. - 1984, Military Intelligence - Volumes 10-12, page 62:
    • ...known the ways of the world in Washington, and may not have been as one of my colleagues in the legislature said, "very ept", when it came to this stuff. - 1991, United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on...
    • They're confident, calm, at ease, talkative, cheerful, and above all, socially very "ept." - 1991, Anne Geller, M. J. Territo, Restore your life: a living plan for sober people, page 133:

Origin

Back-formation from inept; compare apt.

Forms

more ept most ept

Verb

  1. simple past of eep

Origin

Formed by analogy with slept.