sleight

See also: Sleight

English

Etymology

From Middle English sleighte, sleyght, sleythe, from Old Norse slœgð (“cunning”), from Proto-Germanic *slōgiþō, from *slōgiz (“cunning”) (whence English sly). Doublet of slöjd/sloyd.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /slaɪt/
• Rhymes: -aɪt
• Homophone: slight

Noun

sleight (countable and uncountable, plural sleights)

1. Cunning; craft; artful practice.
2. (countable) An artful trick; sly artifice; a feat so dexterous that the manner of performance escapes observation.
   • 1866, Henry Smith, Thomas Fuller, The Sermons of Mr. Henry Smith, page 37:

     If men have so many sleights to compass their matters, how can the compasser himself hold his fingers?

3. Dexterous practice; dexterity; skill.

Related terms

• sleight of hand
• sleightly
• sleighty

Translations

cunning; craft; artful practice

• Bulgarian: ловкост (bg) f (lovkost), умение (bg) n (umenie)
• German: List (de) f, Gerissenheit f, Raffinement (de) n, Raffinesse (de) f, Täuschung (de) f

an artful trick; sly artifice; dexterous feat

• Bulgarian: трик (bg) m (trik), фокус (bg) (fokus)
• German: Trick (de) m, Täuschung (de) f, Taschenspielertrick (de) m, Zauberei (de) f, Volte (de) f

dexterous practice; dexterity; skill

• Bulgarian: ловкост (bg) f (lovkost)
• German: Geschicklichkeit (de) f, Geschick (de) n, Fingerfertigkeit f

Anagrams

• Leights

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

sleight

1. Alternative form of sleighte

Etymology 2

Adjective

sleight

1. Alternative form of slight

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English slight, from Old English sliht.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sliːt/

Adjective

sleight

1. slight

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 68