sleight

sleight

noun \ˈslīt\

Definition of SLEIGHT

1

: deceitful craftiness; also : stratagem

2

: dexterity, skill

Examples of SLEIGHT

1. <must have employed some sophisticated sleight to con that wary couple out of their money>
2. <a brilliant new theory that pays tribute to his remarkable sleight of mind>

Origin of SLEIGHT

Middle English, from Old Norse slœgth, from slœgr sly — more at sly

First Known Use: 14th century

Related to SLEIGHT

Synonyms: artifice, device, dodge, fetch, flimflam, gambit, gimmick, jig, juggle, knack, play, ploy, scheme, shenanigan, trick, stratagem, wile

Antonyms: awkwardness, clumsiness, gaucheness, gawkiness, gawkishness, gracelessness, ham-handedness, heavy-handedness, klutziness, ungainliness

Related Words: bluff, end run, feint; cheating, chicanery, cozenage, craft, crookery, cunning, deception, dupery, duplicity, fakery, jugglery, legerdemain, skulduggery (or skullduggery), subterfuge, swindling, trickery; fraud, gaff, hoax, sham, swindle; blind, front, smoke screen

Near Antonyms: inadequacy, incompetence, incompetency, ineptitude, ineptness; brainlessness, denseness, density, doltishness, dopiness, dullness (also dulness), dumbness, fatuity, foolishness, mindlessness, obtuseness, senselessness, simpleness, slowness, stupidity, stupidness, witlessness

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Rhymes with SLEIGHT

bight, bite, blight, bright, byte, cite, dight, dite, fight, flight, fright, height, hight, kite, knight, krait, kyte, light, lite, might, mite, night, plight, quite, right, rite, sight, site, slight, smite, spite, sprite, tight, trite, white, wight, wite, wright, write