legerdemain

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“
And I had come to be oppressed by what seemed to me the futility of art -- a pompous legerdemain, a consummate charlatanry that deceived not only its devotees but its practitioners.

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Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun Sleight of hand.
  2. noun A show of skill or deceitful cleverness: financial legerdemain.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Choiseul. succeeds him as War-Minister; War-Minister and Prime-Minister both in one;--and by many arts of legerdemain, and another real spasm of effort upon Hanover to do the impossible there, is leading France with winged steps the same road Since March 17th, Friedrich was no longer in Leipzig. —  History of Friedrich II of Prussia
  • That is what gives the new Madonna of modern genetic legerdemain, the FlavrSavr tomato, its slow-ripening edge. —  Omni: January 1993
  • He had not done the trick badly, Doc reflected, although it was not an uncommon bit of legerdemain--there was a rubber ball on the end of an elastic and he had stuffed the ball in the glass where it had made a tight fit, and the elastic had snapped the ball and jigger away under his coat during the hocus pocus with his hands. —  165 - The Devil Is Jones
  • The bishop was fairly taken in by his clever legerdemain, and when once his first distrust was conquered, appeared as anxious to deceive himself as even Delisle could have wished. —  Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
  • The impostor was renowned for his wonderful tricks of legerdemain, as well as for cures, necromancy, and fortune-telling. —  Captain Canot or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver
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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English legerdemayn, from Old French leger de main : leger, light (from Vulgar Latin *leviārius, from Latin levis; see legwh- in Indo-European roots) + de, of (from Latin dē; see de-) + main, hand; see mortmain.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Early mod, English legerdemaine, legierde-mayne, leygier demaine, lieger du maine, from French léger de main, light of hand: léger, light (see leger, a.) ; de, from Latin de, of; main, from Latin manus, hand: see main.
 

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/lɛdʒərdəˈmeɪn/
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