sleight of hand

noun

1. skill in feats requiring quick and clever movements of the hands, especially for entertainment or deception, as jugglery, card or coin magic, etc.; legerdemain.
2. the performance of such feats.
3. a feat of legerdemain.
4. skill in deception.

sleight of hand

noun

1. manual dexterity used in performing conjuring tricks
2. the performance of such tricks

Word History and Origins

Origin of sleight of hand¹

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400

Idioms and Phrases

Trickery, deviousness, as in By some sleight of hand they managed to overlook all bonuses . This term alludes to the performance of magic tricks with the hands. Its figurative use dates from about 1700.

Example Sentences

In Zehme’s depiction, Carson’s public persona was a deception, a sleight of hand befitting a man who started as a magician and never lost his love for it.

From Los Angeles Times

Companies use a kind of mathematical sleight of hand called mass balance to inflate the recycledness of their most lucrative products by taking credit for the recycled content of other, less lucrative products.

From Salon

A key requirement: The content must be determined “by weight,” effectively forbidding the mathematical sleight of hand.

From Salon

“Maybe for a second I was like, ‘Oh, Jay-Z is here?,’” she said, before realizing it had been a theatrical sleight of hand.

From New York Times

Conventional antibiotics often falter -- the bacteria's uncharacteristically thick and impermeable cell envelope, as well as a shrewd evolutionary sleight of hand, have made the pathogens especially resistant towards common treatments.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• chicanery
• deception
• trickery