Sleight

He tried to conceal his ineptitude in a not-so-deft sleight of hand.

All you need is a little sleight of hand in your accounting to make people think your company is profitable.

"Him on Idalia, lulled into a dream, / will I secrete, or on the sacred height / of lone Cythera, lest he learn the scheme, / or by his sudden presence mar the sleight."

"Take thou his likeness, only for a night, / and wear the boyish features that are thine; / and when the queen, in rapture of delight, / amid the royal banquet and the wine, / shall lock thee in her arms, and press her lips to thine, / then steal into her bosom, and inspire / through all her veins with unsuspected sleight / the poisoned sting of passion and desire."

Mary possesses real magical powers, but she presents them in such a way that they appear to be mere sleight of hand.

Using sleight of hand, he pulled a rabbit out of his hat.

The talk of "banning the word woman" is a sleight of hand for what reactionaries actually object to: introducing words that include trans men and nonbinary people.

It's a sleight of hand.

He's good at sleight of hand. I didn't notice the coin had disappeared.

If men have so many sleights to compass their matters, how can the compasser himself hold his fingers?