finesse
extreme delicacy or subtlety in action, performance, skill, discrimination, taste, etc.
skill in handling a difficult or highly sensitive situation; adroit and artful management: exceptional diplomatic finesse.
a trick, artifice, or stratagem.
Bridge, Whist. an attempt to win a trick with a card while holding a higher card not in sequence with it, in the hope that the card or cards between will not be played.
to use finesse or artifice.
to make a finesse at cards.
to bring about by finesse or artifice.
to avoid; circumvent.
to make a finesse with (a card).
to force the playing of (a card) by a finesse.
Origin of finesse
1Other words for finesse
1, 2 | tact, diplomacy, savoir faire, circumspection, sensitivity, sensibility |
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use finesse in a sentence
They have brought stearine and pasteboards with them, and are soon deep in the finesses of Euchre.
Pictures of Southern Life | William Howard RussellAnd again, "I have had infinite trouble to-day to make my audience appreciate some finesses of Racine."
A Writer's Recollections (In Two Volumes), Volume I | Mrs. Humphry WardIt is by searching out these finesses of nature that you train your eye.
The Painter in Oil | Daniel Burleigh ParkhurstEven as an etcher he caught all the technical finesses and appetising piquancies of his great forerunner Goya.
The History of Modern Painting, Volume 3 (of 4) | Richard MutherPrinces are supposed to know nothing but the art and the finesses of destruction—war.
Secret Memoirs: The Story of Louise, Crown Princess | Henry W. Fischer
British Dictionary definitions for finesse
/ (fɪˈnɛs) /
elegant skill in style or performance
subtlety and tact in handling difficult situations
bridge whist an attempt to win a trick when opponents hold a high card in the suit led by playing a lower card, hoping the opponent who has already played holds the missing card
a trick, artifice, or strategy
to manage or bring about with finesse
to play (a card) as a finesse
Origin of finesse
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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