英和和英

語源

From 中期英語 slegthe of hande, sleght of hond, equivalent to sleight +‎ of +‎ hand. Compare Old French léger de main (cf. the contemporary French léger de main and the contemporary English legerdemain).

発音

名詞

sleight of hand (countable and uncountable, plural sleights of hand)

1. The required manual dexterity used to perform magic tricks and illusions.
   • 1856, Alexander Bryan Johnson, The Physiology of the Senses, page 65:

     A large portion of natural magic and sleight of hand is only the severance of sights and feels that we are accustomed to experience in unison.

   • 1976, Ulster Folklife:

     Frequently this practitioner would keep a stock of elf-shot from which one would be produced by sleight of hand from the ailing animal's flank as evidence that it had indeed been elf-shot.

2. A performance of such a skill.

   Synonyms: legerdemain, prestidigitation; see also Thesaurus:prestidigitation

3. (figuratively, by extension) Any form of clever or skillful trickery or deception.

   Synonyms: jugglery, subterfuge; see also Thesaurus:deception

   • 1923, Ernest Bramah, The Eyes of Max Carrados

     "Gave his consent! For his son to marry an actress?"
     "Ah, there was a little sleight of hand there. He only knew Miss Roscastle as Miss Eileen O'Rourke, the last representative of a line of Irish kings. […] "

   • 2004 December 10, Nancy Banks-Smith, “Review: Financial crimes”, in The Guardian‎, archived from the original on 26 December 2024:

     The Man Who Broke Britain (BBC2) was a heady concoction of fact and fiction. Real politicians assured us everything was going to be just fine while actors, playing city traders, groaned that it was hopeless, hopeless. It was part of the film's sleight of hand that the actors, who were deliberately chosen because they were not well known, looked real too.

参照

Further reading

• sleight of hand on Wikipedia.Wikipedia