legerdemain

[ lej-er-duh-meyn ]

noun

1. sleight of hand.
2. trickery; deception.
3. any artful trick.

legerdemain

/ ˌlɛdʒədəˈmeɪn /

noun

1. See sleight of hand
   another name for sleight of hand
2. cunning deception or trickery

Derived Forms

• ˌlegerdeˈmainist, noun

Other Words From

• leger·de·mainist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of legerdemain¹

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English legerdemeyn, lygarde de mayne “skill in conjuring, sleight of hand,” from Middle French léger de main “nimble, skillful,” literally “light of hand” (unrecorded)

Word History and Origins

Origin of legerdemain¹

C15: from Old French: light of hand

Example Sentences

The ad world knows it needs to change, it’s facing calls to change, it says it’s going to change, but then in the perfect act of legerdemain, it does … absolutely nothing.

From Ozy

People magazine called them the “Liberaces of legerdemain,” after the outrageously overdressed Las Vegas star.

From Washington Post

One act of legislative legerdemain was succeeded by another.

From The Daily Beast

They are impossible of explanation on any hypothesis calculated to reduce his work to the vulgar plane of legerdemain.

From Project Gutenberg

Professor Stanyon is one of the most prolific as well as one of the cleverest living writers, on the subject of legerdemain.

From Project Gutenberg

The horrible act of Poisoning and all the tricks and conveyances of juggling and legerdemain are fully deciphered.

From Project Gutenberg

"Of the marvellous art of legerdemain, Monsieur Arbuthnot," interrupted the Chevalier eagerly.

From Project Gutenberg

The Alchemist and the Rosicrucian are no more, and of all their race, the professor of Legerdemain alone survives.

From Project Gutenberg