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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
finesse
I.noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Flame control: a certain amount of finesse is required to fine tune the heat output.
▪ It is the trick of the big-stage musical number but applied to circus with finesse and much tongue-in-cheek humour.
▪ The game was a hard slog with no finesse, despite the promotion aspirations of both sides.
▪ The stats make her a strange hybrid of power and finesse, a combination that she resisted for a while.
II.verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Kemp uses his creativity to find excuses which are meant to finesse problematic moments.
▪ Roberts finessed his arrival, speaking to Fernandez privately about their shared responsibilities.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ I had a miserable quantitative background and ended up copying some assignments and finessing the rest as best I could.
▪ Mr Chen's approach is to finesse the problem of reunification through a mixture of goodwill and verbal subtlety.
▪ Somehow, we hoped, when the test finally came, she would be able to finesse the written stuff.
▪ The guard would know he was trying to get away and finesse the whole thing!
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Finesse

Finesse \Fi`nesse"\ (? or ?), n. [F., fr. fin fine. See Fine, a.]

  1. Subtilty of contrivance to gain a point; artifice; stratagem.

    This is the artificialest piece of finesse to persuade men into slavery.
    --Milton.

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

Finesse

Finesse \Fi*nesse"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Finessed; p. pr. & vb. n. Finessing.]

  1. To use artifice or stratagem.
    --Goldsmith.

  2. (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.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
finesse

1520s, "fineness" (obsolete); 1530s, "artifice, delicate stratagem," from Middle French finesse "fineness, subtlety," from Old French fin "subtle, delicate" (see fine (adj.)).

finesse

"to use fine stratagems," 1746, originally as a term in whist; see finesse (n.). Related: Finessed; finessing.

Wiktionary
finesse

n. 1 (context uncountable English) The property of having grace, elegance, skill, or balance. 2 (context uncountable English) Skill in handling of a situation. 3 (context countable English) An adroit manoeuvre. 4 (context countable bridge English) A technique which allows one to promote tricks based on a favorable position of one or more cards in the hands of the opponent. vb. 1 (context ambitransitive card games English) To play (a card) as a finesse (see noun sense above). 2 (context transitive English) To handle or manage carefully or skillfully. 3 (context transitive English) To evade.

WordNet
finesse

n. subtly skillful handling of a situation [syn: delicacy, diplomacy, discreetness]

Wikipedia
Finesse

In contract bridge and similar games, a finesse is a card play technique which will enable a player to win an additional trick or tricks should there be a favorable position of one or more cards in the hands of the opponents.

The player attempts to win either the current trick or a later trick with a card of the suit he leads notwithstanding that the opponents hold a higher card in the suit; the attempt is based on the assumption that the higher card is held by a particular opponent. The specifics of the technique vary depending upon the suit combination being played and the number of tricks the player is attempting to win in that suit.

Finesse (disambiguation)

Finesse is a technique in the card game of contract bridge.

Finesse may also refer to:

Finesse (Toshiko Akiyoshi album)

Finesse is a jazz trio album recorded by pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi in 1978 and released on the Concord Jazz record label.

Finesse (Glenn Jones album)

Finesse is the first full-length album released by R&B/ soul singer Glenn Jones. Released in 1984, the album includes one of Jones' early hits, "Show Me," along with the semi-hit "Bring Back Your Love."

Finesse (comics)

Finesse is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Usage examples of "finesse".

Only noblemen possess the finesse and acuity required to learn the skills of governing eotaurs and the fickle currents of the atmosphere.

Too undone to finesse the spells he might have tried as a restorative, Dakar offered up a muzzy prayer to Ath for a speedy, smooth pass beneath the Wheel.

The liquid, available in some foreign countries, is carb-free, and while it will take a little more finesse to figure out quantities, it will allow me to slash the carb counts of all sorts of recipes still further.

Mark Kemper would require more finesse than had been used to trick Spooner.

Thanks also to my editors, Dianne Moggy and Amy Moore-Benson, who helped to shape this work with sensitivity and finesse.

Hope raised a flame of fierce expectation, as in response to relentless finesse his drawn rune lit to hazed phosphor, then drifted above the basin.

Odysseus has been taken in and fed and the other guests have departed, he has a conversation with Alkinoos and Arete that, like his encounter with Nausikaa, demands all his finesse to avoid possible pitfalls.

Only the ballcarrier, one man, could attempt to use evasion and finesse in avoiding the primal impact.

Carcer raised his sword and took a stance, but there was no room for finesse in the melee and Vimes closed like a bull, knocking the sword up and grabbing Carcer by the throat.

Not a finesse skater, he galloped down the ice, stickhandling with one hand, and fending off attackers with the other.

The train tracks had been ripped up and replaced by a vast apron of enzyme-bonded concrete that had been poured without any finesse over the ground all the way back to the main highway leading to the planetary station.

Brute strength and broadswords were pitted against finesse and rapiers.

And, it must be said, some scientists and dedicated sceptics apply this tool as a blunt instrument, with little finesse.

On his side was her own nature, the adventurousness she seemed determined to bury, and a very real situation that needed to be finessed.

All that Bata had taught him about finesse of expression was gone as if it had never been.