sleight of hand
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]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]
Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
[edit]sleight of hand (countable and uncountable, plural sleights of hand)
- The required hand dexterity behind magic tricks and illusions.
- A performance of such skill.
- (by extension, idiomatic) Any form of skillful deception.
Synonyms
[edit]Translations
[edit]skill
|
performance
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skillful deception
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References
[edit]- ^ Arika Okrent (2019 July 5) “12 Old Words That Survived by Getting Fossilized in Idioms”, in Mental Floss[1], Pocket, retrieved 2021-10-08