FINESSE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • 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

... Clearing his throat, Dove gazed at the sinner before him. He began to see that his errand was not going to be an easy one; where no hint was taken, it was difficult to insert even the thinnest edge of the wedge. He resolved to use finesse; and, for several of the precious moments at his disposal, he talked, as if at ...

— Maurice Guest • Henry Handel Richardson

... catalogue of his virtues is an easy task. Achilles was a huge body, associated with little brain, and had no symptom of sagacity. In this regard, Ulysses outranks him, and commands our respect. He has diplomacy and finesse. He is not simply a huge frame, wrestling men down because his bulk surpasses theirs. He has a thrifty mind. He is the man for councils of war, fitted to direct with easy mastery of superior acumen. His fellow-warriors called him "crafty," because he was brainy. ...

— A Hero and Some Other Folks • William A. Quayle

... me if I did. But what if she has? You can never wish to see so lovely a being brought to shame for withholding information which she evidently considers it her duty to keep back, when by a little patient finesse we may succeed in our ...

— The Leavenworth Case • Anna Katharine Green

... fact that it is still too young to have acquired dignity. But lately sprung from the mob it now preys upon, it yet shows some of the habits of mind of that mob: it is blatant, stupid, ignorant, lacking in all delicate instinct and governmental finesse. Above all, it remains somewhat heavily moral. One seldom finds it undertaking one of its characteristic imbecilities without offering a sonorous moral reason; it spends almost as much to support the Y. M. C. A., vice-crusading, Prohibition and other such puerilities as ...

— The Antichrist • F. W. Nietzsche

... action and gesture, and of an animation when speaking nearly fiery in its vivacity: neither pretty nor young, but neither ugly nor old; and her smile, which was rare, had a finesse very engaging; while her whole demeanour announced a person Of consequence, and all her discourse told that she was well-informed, ...

— The Diary and Letters of Madam D'Arblay Volume 2 • Madame D'Arblay

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