Word
finesse
Phoneticsfi·nesse
US/fɪˈnɛs/
UK/fɪnˈɛs/
Definition
v. to handle a difficult situation with great skill and style. In casual talk, it can also mean getting what you want by being clever or slightly sneaky.
v. to handle or manage a situation with great delicacy and skill. In contemporary informal usage, it describes the act of obtaining something through clever manipulation or social engineering.
Examples
“She managed to finesse the deal despite the difficult terms.”
“The diplomat had to finesse the negotiations to ensure both parties felt they had won something significant.”
“While the technical requirements were daunting, the lead architect managed to finesse the final design to satisfy both the historical preservation society and the modern developers.”
Examples
simple
“She managed to finesse the deal despite the difficult terms.”
contextual
“The diplomat had to finesse the negotiations to ensure both parties felt they had won something significant.”
complex
“While the technical requirements were daunting, the lead architect managed to finesse the final design to satisfy both the historical preservation society and the modern developers.”
Usage
Transitive verb; takes a direct object representing the situation or object being managed.
Pitfall
He finessed about the problem
He finessed the problem
Finesse is a transitive verb and does not require a preposition like 'about' before the object.
Real-World Examples
“Not all games rely heavily on timing and finesse, but a lot of them do, and playing games on a minor time-delay felt nauseating.” “It feels like a show that’s come too early in their career, but what it lacks in finesse, editing and finish, it makes up for in an overabundance of ideas.” Etymology
From Middle English finesse (“degree of excellence; (of metal) fineness, purity”), from Middle French finesse, Old French finesse (“fineness; delicacy; slenderness”), from fine, fin (“fine, thin”) (from Latin fīnis (“end”); compare Middle English fīn (“of superior quality; precious, valuable; admirable, pleasing; pure, refined; fineness, purity; delicate, exquisite, fine; sharp, thin”)) + -esse (suffix forming nouns describing the condition of being something). The verb is derived from the noun.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Domain
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/finesse