legerdemain
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
Borrowing from French léger de main (literally “light (weight) of hand”).
Pronunciation [edit]
- (UK) IPA: /ˌlɛdʒədɨˈmeɪn/
- (US) IPA: /ˈlɛdʒəɹdəˌmeɪn/
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Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -eɪn
- Hyphenation: leg‧er‧de‧main
Noun [edit]
Wikipedia legerdemain (uncountable)
- Sleight of hand; "magic" trickery.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.9:
- For he in slights and jugling feates did flow, / And of legierdemayne the mysteries did know.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.9:
- A show of skill or deceitful ability.
- 1673, Gilbert Burnet, The mystery of iniquity unvailed, London, p. 128:
- Certainly, that they are to this day so rife in Italy and Spain, and so scant in Britain, is a shrewd ground to apprehend Legerdemain, and forgery, in the accounts we get of their later Saints.
- 1673, Gilbert Burnet, The mystery of iniquity unvailed, London, p. 128:
Synonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
sleight of hand
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