sleight of hand

sleight of hand

Trickery or deception. The phrase often but does not always refer to actual hand movements. The magician's sleight of hand awed the crowd as he made yet another coin disappear. With a little sleight of hand we can replace your name on the list with someone else's, don't worry.
See also: hand, of
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

sleight of hand

Trickery, deviousness, as in By some sleight of hand they managed to overlook all bonuses. This term alludes to the performance of magic tricks with the hands. Its figurative use dates from about 1700.
See also: hand, of
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

sleight of hand

the display of skilful, especially deceptive, dexterity or cunning.
Literally, the expression means ‘manual dexterity in performing a conjuring trick’.
See also: hand, of
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

ˌsleight of ˈhand


1 something done with very quick and skilful movements of the hand(s) so that other people cannot see what really happened: The trick is done simply by sleight of hand.
2 skilful use of facts or figures to give people the wrong impression of something or to make them believe something which is not true: We now realize that much of Burt’s research was presented with a statistical sleight of hand.
See also: hand, of
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • have (something) in hand
  • have in hand
  • in hand
  • have (something) well in hand
  • get out of hand
  • be in hand
  • get a hand on (something)
  • a steady hand on the tiller
  • a hand in
  • a hand in (something)
References in periodicals archive
While the invisible hand of the market has been shown to be no match for the accountants' sleight of hand, the flaws really reduce to failures in information flows.
Japanese editorial excerpts - INVISIBLE HAND VS. SLEIGHT OF HAND
"The real implication of this legislative sleight of hand is that no landlord or financing institution can be assured that the State will honor its leasehold commitments," said Sinzheimer.
State legislates lease cancellation; bill clears the way for SUNY, CUNY relocations
The canon effects the exchange by sleight of hand, but the duped priest believes in the actual transmutation of the metal and asks to buy the formula.
Canon's Yeoman's Tale, The
It has since emerged that he - and the mystery partner - used sleight of hand tricks to con jewellers in Shrewsbury, Hereford, Durham, Newark, Cambridge and Oxford out of PS24,000 of jewellery.
Magic tricks used to steal PS24k jewels
Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto questioned on Tuesday what he called a 'sleight of hand' in the government's proposed tax reform package.
Recto quizzes exec on 'sleight of hand' in tax reform package
The question therefore legitimately arises: Are lies, distortions and clumsy sleight of hand sufficient reasons to bring down the horrific weight of modern arms upon the Iraqi people?
Letter: No excuse
Pro-cloning researchers and others are attempting to use linguistic sleight of hand to erode the moral significance of human cloning.
Language of life; LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
With two of the world's most powerful supercomputers and a bit of mathematical sleight of hand, physicists have accomplished a longstanding and yet remarkably humble goal.
Computers Crunch Quantum Collisions
But the dialog strains, and O'Haver's sleight of hand only temporarily distracts us from the warped spectacle of a solidly identified gay man placing all his bets on a fucked-up closet case.
Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss
ULSTER found the searing pace and sleight of hand of the Spanish Barbarians too hot to handle in the steamy heat of San Sebastian's Real Sociedad stadium as they crashed 57-34.
Ulster tortured by Spanish inquisition
Justice David Souter certainly wasn't fooled by the court majority's sleight of hand. In his dissent, he charged that the decision authorizes "direct state aid to religious institutions on an unparalleled scale, in violation of the Establishment Clause's central prohibition against religious subsidies by the government."
The Supreme Court: taking a sledge hammer to Jefferson's wall
Here, although the building presents a suitably solemn face to the world - an understated essay in variably patterned brick slivers, uniformly the colour of red oxide - it is the interior that reveals intriguing spatial sleight of hand. The key move is the positioning of the circulation spine in the centre of the plan, as opposed the more conventional arrangement of staircases at either end.
Keble connection
ST TIGGYWINKLES, the hedgehog hospital, appear to be guilty of sleight of hand.
Mirror M@ilbox: Readers Letter
Winogrand's painterly eye for color and composition are uncannily in sync, and when pop-inflected signage figures in the equation, you'd swear it was by sleight of hand.
"Garry Winogrand 1964": international center of photography, New York. (Reviews)
Liverpool businessman Gerard Conteh and his wife Barbara had watched in amazement at what they thought was a "mystical" opportunity to double their money But they had been tricked all along by the sleight of hand of conman Rigobert Youmbi, who was jailed for two years and nine months at London's Southwark Crown Court.
Conteh conman jailed