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sleight of hand

noun

Etymology

From Middle English slegthe of hande, sleght of hond, equivalent to sleight + of + hand. Compare Old French léger de main (cf. the contemporary French léger de main and the contemporary English legerdemain).

  1. derived from slegthe of hande

Definitions

  1. The required manual dexterity used to perform magic tricks and illusions.

    • A large portion of natural magic and sleight of hand is only the severance of sights and feels that we are accustomed to experience in unison.
    • Frequently this practitioner would keep a stock of elf-shot from which one would be produced by sleight of hand from the ailing animal's flank as evidence that it had indeed been elf-shot.

  2. A performance of such a skill.

  3. Any form of clever or skillful trickery or deception.

    • "Gave his consent! For his son to marry an actress?" "Ah, there was a little sleight of hand there. He only knew Miss Roscastle as Miss Eileen O'Rourke, the last representative of a line of Irish kings. […]"

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for sleight of hand. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA