FINESSE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Finesse

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/fɪnˈɛs/ Listen

noun

Finesse n.

Subtilty of contrivance to gain a point; artifice; stratagem. "This is the artificialest piece of finesse to persuade men into slavery."

(Whist Playing) The act of finessing. See Finesse, v. i., 2.

verb

Finesse v. i. (past & past part. finessed; pres. part. finessing)

To use artifice or stratagem.

(Whist Playing) To attempt, when second or third player, to make a lower card answer the purpose of a higher, when an intermediate card is out, risking the chance of its being held by the opponent yet to play.

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Etymology of 'Finesse'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Finesse" Quotes from Famous Books

... amateurish way I attacked those eggs, breaking into them, not with the finesse the finished egg burglar would display, but more like a yeggman attacking a safe. I spilt a good deal of the insides of those eggs down over their outsides, producing a most untidy effect; and when I did succeed in excavating ...

— Eating in Two or Three Languages • Irvin S. Cobb

... of the matter as I came to realise that our philosophies differed profoundly. That isn't a very curable difference,—once people have grown up. Theirs was a philosophy devoid of FINESSE. Temperamentally the Baileys were specialised, concentrated, accurate, while I am urged either by some Inner force or some entirely assimilated influence in my training, always to round off and shadow my outlines. I hate them hard. I would sacrifice detail to modelling always, and ...

— The New Machiavelli • Herbert George Wells

... entirely lacking in finesse. He offered Patrick Henry a position after having first ascertained in a roundabout manner that it would be refused, and in many other ways showed that he understood good politics. Perhaps the neatest of his dodges ...

— The True George Washington [10th Ed.] • Paul Leicester Ford

... another man's message there may be some disinclination on the part of the officials to oblige you. There is so much red tape in these matters! However, I have no doubt that with a little delicacy and finesse the end may be attained. Meanwhile, I should like in your presence, Mr. Overton, to go through these papers which have been left upon ...

— The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Magazine Edition • Arthur Conan Doyle

... wonderful tact and finesse; I sat back and laughed at the performance, now and then applying a check when her riotous imagination seemed likely to run ...

— Under the Andes • Rex Stout

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