sleight

sleight

noun

Definition of SLEIGHT

1

a clever often underhanded means to achieve an end <must have employed some sophisticated sleight to con that wary couple out of their money>

Synonyms artifice, device, dodge, fetch, flimflam, gambit, gimmick, jig, juggle, knack, play, ploy, scheme, shenanigan, sleight, stratagem, wile

Related Words bluff, end run, feint; cheating, chicanery, cozenage, craft, crookery, cunning, deception, dupery, duplicity, fakery, jugglery, legerdemain, skulduggery (or skullduggery), subterfuge, swindling, trickery; fraud, gaff, hoax, sham, swindle; blind, front, smoke screen

2

mental skill or quickness <a brilliant new theory that pays tribute to his remarkable sleight of mind>

Synonyms adroitness, cleverness, finesse, sleight

Related Words ability, aptitude, capability, capacity, faculty, knack, prowess, talent; competence, competency, efficiency, expertise, know-how, proficiency; ingeniousness, ingenuity, resourcefulness; savvy, sharpness, shrewdness; artfulness, artifice, caginess (also cageyness), canniness, craft, craftiness, cunning, cunningness, deviousness, foxiness, guile, slickness, slyness, sneakiness, subtleness, wiliness

Near Antonyms inadequacy, incompetence, incompetency, ineptitude, ineptness; brainlessness, denseness, density, doltishness, dopiness, dullness (also dulness), dumbness, fatuity, foolishness, mindlessness, obtuseness, senselessness, simpleness, slowness, stupidity, stupidness, witlessness

3

ease and grace in physical activity <a muscle-bound weight lifter known more for his might than his sleight>

Synonyms agility, deftness, nimbleness, sleight, spryness

Related Words coordination; flexibility, gracefulness, limberness, litheness, loose-jointedness, suppleness; handiness, sure-handedness; sure-footedness; adeptness, adroitness, finesse, prowess

Near Antonyms disability, inability, incapability, incapacity; debilitation, disablement, impairment, incapacitation; unhandiness

Antonyms awkwardness, clumsiness, gaucheness, gawkiness, gawkishness, gracelessness, ham-handedness, heavy-handedness, klutziness, ungainliness