finesse

noun

extreme delicacy or subtlety in action, performance, skill, discrimination, taste, etc.

skill in handling a difficult or highly sensitive situation; adroit and artful management: exceptional diplomatic finesse.

a trick, artifice, or stratagem.

Bridge, Whist. an attempt to win a trick with a card while holding a higher card not in sequence with it, in the hope that the card or cards between will not be played.

verb (used without object)

to use finesse or artifice.

to make a finesse at cards.

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verb (used with object)

to bring about by finesse or artifice.

to avoid; circumvent.

to make a finesse with (a card).

10.

to force the playing of (a card) by a finesse.

Origin:
1400–50; late Middle English: degree of excellence or purity < Middle French < Vulgar Latin *fīnitia. See fine¹, -ice

Synonyms
1, 2. tact, diplomacy, savoir faire, circumspection, sensitivity, sensibility.

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To finesse

Collins

World English Dictionary

finesse (fɪˈnɛs)

—n
1.	elegant skill in style or performance
2.	subtlety and tact in handling difficult situations
3.	bridge, whist an attempt to win a trick when opponents hold a high card in the suit led by playing a lower card, hoping the opponent who has already played holds the missing card
4.	a trick, artifice, or strategy

—vb
5.	to manage or bring about with finesse
6.	to play (a card) as a finesse

[C15: from Old French, from fin fine, delicate; see fine¹]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

finesse

1528, from M.Fr. finesse "fineness, subtlety," from O.Fr. fin "subtle, delicate" (see fine (adj.)). The verb is first attested 1746.

Example sentences

There would be no need to maneuver or to adjust the approach for any reason other than to finesse the touchdown itself.

They give you the means to psychologically finesse ambiguous outside reality.

She has thrived as a ballad singer, alternately celebrated for her finesse and

dismissed as bland.

Baseball was a different game then, built more on speed and finesse than power.

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Related Words

cunning idlesse

maneuver outwit

Matching Quote

"Next we come to the bronchial buster, or the man (it is usually a man) who, being in the throes of a terrific throat and tube trouble chooses that night for theater-going.... He will soon learn to pick his pauses with finesse. It does no good to cough while there is a great deal of noise going on on the stage. No one can hear. The time is just as the star is about to do a little low speaking to her dying lover or when the hero, alone in his garret, goes silently over to the fireplace and tears up the letter. There for a good rousing bark, my hearty, followed by a series of short sharp ones like those of a coxswain! If possible the appearance of apoplexy should be simulated."

-Robert Benchley

finesse

fi·nesse