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:
Centre-back Lisandro Martinez was outmuscled embarrassingly easily by Dominic Solanke, with goalkeeper Senne Lammens failing to read the striker's deft touch that crept in at the far corner.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
“We hear the VP views Schmitt as trustworthy, intelligent, articulate and a deft political operator,” VandeHei wrote.
From Salon ● Oct. 1, 2026
Nadira Goffe praises Lanterns’ deft portrayal of the Black American experience.
From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2026
Yet Cusk has found a large fan base for her work, mainly because she is a deft excavator of the human psyche, a writer who can articulate emotional states with uncanny precision and insight.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
Alice was kneeling in front of her, facing away, as the woman bent over her and with deft fingers wove her hair into complex braids, twisting flowers into it as she did.
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
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
But this particular story needed a defter touch.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2021
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
The pen of an indictment clerk is oft mightier than the sword of a Lionheart, the brain behind the subtle quill far defter than said swordsman's skill.
From By Advice of Counsel by Arthur Cheney Train
The online blurb says the book is a "darkly humorous novel that uses the deftest touch to draw a thread through the lives of Welsh farmers, city accountants, Indian hoteliers and Eisteddfod mums".
From BBC ● Mar. 19, 2026
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
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
The rarest magic has gone, and he knows it; philosophy remains, and out of that resisting material he is able, now and again, to weave, in his deftest manner, a few garlands.
From Poems of Coleridge by Arthur Symons
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
