sleight
Americannoun
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skill; dexterity.
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an artifice; stratagem.
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cunning; craft.
noun
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skill; dexterity See also sleight of hand
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a trick or stratagem
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cunning; trickery
Usage
What does sleight mean? Sleight means skill, especially with one’s hands (dexterity).It can also mean trickery or cunning, or a specific trick or scheme.Sleight is by far most commonly used in the phrase sleight of hand, whose meanings are very similar to those of sleight: manual dexterity, general trickery, or a trick performed with quick and skillful hand movements.Sleight and sleight of hand are especially associated with coin and card tricks that require such hand movements. They’re also associated with deceptive ways of stealing, such as pickpocketing.Sleight should not be confused with the word slight, which has the same pronunciation. As an adjective, slight means small or insignificant. As a noun, it commonly means the act of treating someone with indifference or snubbing them.Example: The illusionist spent years perfecting his sleight so that it was undetectable even at close range.
Etymology
Origin of sleight
1225–75; Middle English; early Middle English slēgth < Old Norse slǣgth. See sly, -th 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But Beethoven also questions every sentiment in the Mass. Grandeur can so suddenly turn solemn that it feels almost a ceremonial sleight of hand.
From Los Angeles Times
Confronted with the rules of fair play, the reader was enjoined to solve the case alongside the detective, which required seeing through the author’s sleights of hand.
This sleight of hand directly undermines the intended safeguards in federal law.
From MarketWatch
In one of several misleading rhetorical sleights, Ms. Goldstein credits the materialist focus of Greek philosophy with inventing the secular, a modern concept.
He had moments at Wembley, especially with some superb sleight of foot, but both he and Tuchel would have wished for better end product.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
