deft
Americanadjective
-
defter,
comparative
-
deftest
superlative
adjective
Synonym Usage
See dexterous.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of deft
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English; variant of daft
Explanation
Deft means "showing cleverness and skill in handling things." What you want to see in football or basketball is some deft handling of the ball. Some people are physically deft, like accomplished athletes and ballet dancers. Their movements are fast, graceful, and deliberate. Others might be mentally or intellectually deft. You could describe a beautifully written essay as deft, or talk about a politician's deft work on an anti-bullying bill. The source of deft is the Old English gedæfte, "mild or gentle," which became deft in Middle English along with its meaning of "apt, skillful, or adept."
Vocabulary lists containing deft
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Whether he is pulling a pint, tossing a builder's helmet in the air or running with Olympic medallist Mo Farah, the UK's new prime minister Andy Burnham has embraced social media with a deft touch.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
Rahele Jomepour Bell’s deft use of acrylic paint and soft pastels evokes a world of hazy tranquility, a palette of greens, golds and oranges imbuing each page with a palpable warmth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
Hockney’s largest canvas — at more than 7 feet tall and 20 feet wide — is filled with deft lines and Hockney’s signature swirls.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
Borgli’s deft mixture of punchy dark humor and thorny subjects makes for a distinctly American movie that only a Norwegian could think up.
From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026
Marrel noticed her energy and her deft hands.
From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman
Andrew Bayliss, the author of “Sparta: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Superpower,” is a defter writer than Xenophon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 25, 2026
In between the defter displays, Johnny Rockett, the clown, lampoons various circus skills.
From New York Times ● Nov. 25, 2022
Whatever one may wonder about Özil’s motivations, he has shown a defter touch on social media than most of his teammates have managed on the pitch since the season began.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 30, 2020
Ultimately, this is territory that’s been covered in hipper, defter ways over the last few years in features such as “Weekend” and “Like You Mean It” and in HBO’s bar-raising series “Looking.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 5, 2016
A defter hand than his had retouched it here and there, but for all that it remained his very own.
From The House of the Vampire by George Sylvester Viereck
The skill with which Friedan connects the dots between the subjugation of intelligent, educated women and the ruthless, calculated mind-numbing agenda of consumerism turns out to be her deftest move.
From Salon ● Jan. 5, 2025
Victoria Jones is a very amiable student from Lancashire who begins talking to me a mile a minute in a way that would defeat the deftest shorthand practitioner.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 5, 2017
Bourgue continued to produce an array of winners, including the deftest of drop shots, to delight the home crowd in Philippe Chatrier court.
From BBC ● May 25, 2016
Jay Roach’s movie follows the tribulations—and exhausted triumphs—of Dalton Trumbo, one of the deftest of American screenwriters.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 9, 2015
He had removed the cover in the deftest manner without friction, and seemingly without disturbing the contents in the least.
From The Dream Doctor by Arthur B. (Arthur Benjamin) Reeve
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
