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Sleight of hand
Definitions
- 1 The required manual dexterity behind magic tricks and illusions. countable, uncountable
"A large portion of natural magic and sleight of hand is only the severance of sights and feels that we are accustomed to experience in unison."
- 2 manual dexterity in the execution of tricks wordnet
- 3 A performance of such skill. countable, uncountable
- 4 Any form of skillful deception. broadly, countable, idiomatic, uncountable
"The Man Who Broke Britain (BBC2) was a heady concoction of fact and fiction. Real politicians assured us everything was going to be just fine while actors, playing city traders, groaned that it was hopeless, hopeless. It was part of the film's sleight of hand that the actors, who were deliberately chosen because they were not well known, looked real too."
Etymology
From Middle English slegthe of hande, sleght of hond, equivalent to sleight + of + hand. Compare Old French léger de main (cf. the contemporary French léger de main and the contemporary English legerdemain).
See also for "sleight of hand"
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