finessing

Variant of finesse

noun

  1. adroitness and delicacy of performance
  2. the ability to handle delicate and difficult situations skillfully and diplomatically
  3. cunning; skill; artfulness; craft
  4. Bridge an attempt to take a trick with a lower card while holding a higher card not in sequence with it, made in the hope that the intervening card is in the hand of the opponent who has already played

Origin: Fr < OFr fin, fine

transitive verb finessed, finessing

  1. to manage, bring about, or deal with by finesse: sometimes with into
  2. to evade or bypass (a problem, issue, etc.)
  3. Bridge
    1. to make a finesse with (a specified card)
    2. to play a card lower than (the specified intervening card) in making a finesse

intransitive verb

to use or make a finesse
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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