finessein a sentence
- It had a curmudgeonly fuel transfer valve that Pillsbury and Douglas had to finesse into place, lest it stick wide open, slow an engine, or trigger a deafening backfire.† (source)
- It wasn't until he took up running, an activity that rewards will and determination more than finesse or cunning, that he found his athletic calling.† (source)
- He'd tied guys into knots with finesse.† (source)
- He knew the task before him would require more finesse than force, and he left his handgun in the car.† (source)
- Others, he thinks, would do this with less finesse.† (source)
- At first they'd play tennis, on the clay court behind Crake's place, but Crake combined method with lateral thinking and hated to lose, and Jimmy was impetuous and lacked finesse, so that wasn't too productive and they dropped it.† (source)
- Not speed, not agility, not finesse.† (source)
- Unfortunately, it failed to engage properly; and—for several minutes, hoping that the desk clerk was too out-of-it to notice —I stood in the open elevator trying to finesse the card-slide until the steel doors hissed and slid shut.† (source)
- A game of finesse and aim, and a game of raw, bludgeoning power.† (source)
- This is the classic event where you not only have to stay on the horse for eight seconds, but also do so with style and finesse.† (source)
- As in sumo wrestling, the awesome crudeness on the surface of the battle disguised the finesse underneath.† (source)
show 93 more with this conextual meaning
- He was looking for finesse but I came after him with muscle.† (source)
- The words start to spill out, without finesse or sophistication.† (source)
- We'll rush home, and I will drop them in a new pot on our old stove with all the finesse of a girl who has lived many Cape summers while Nick giggles and pretends to hide in fear outside the kitchen door.† (source)
- If you had finesse and subtlety to match such courage, you'd be truly formidable.† (source)
- I had had the nerve to propose repair of his new eighteen-hundred dollar BMW, the pride of a half-century of German mechanical finesse, with a piece of old beer can!† (source)
- Swords required more finesse than he felt most fights deserved: bash a swordsman on the wrist and, armored or not, he would be too preoccupied with his broken bones to defend himself.† (source)
- I watched hands, hard and etched like granite, light a match with finesse.† (source)
- She and Wainwright managed to finesse the housing assignments they wanted.† (source)
- She's taken to immortality with amazing finesse."† (source)
- SOSUS required more finesse.† (source)
- They had no great finesse, but they were dogged, and would eventually get the creature down.† (source)
- Finesse will be called for.† (source)
- It had been almost three weeks since Dexter and I had split, and not only was I dealing with it, we'd almost finessed the impossible: a friendship.† (source)
- I was surprised that Rufus had wanted me to go to meet Governor Flynn alone; I was even more surprised that he thought Father Michael should be the one to finesse the interview in the first place.† (source)
- He'd succeeded thus far because of his urgency, not through any finesse, and he made no attempt at it now.† (source)
- Suddenly he was angry, furious that she could strip away his finesse until he was no more than a beast rutting.† (source)
- Carlos, too, was growing old and losing his finesse, thought Jason Bourne.† (source)
- He might be a genius at finessing the budget, but he's afraid to make operational decisions, and he's afraid to get the Section involved in the necessary field work."† (source)
- Due to my low self-esteem, I was terrified of girls, and had a complete lack of any social finesse, so I hardly ever went out with friends.† (source)
- I know Coach Spurrier has a reputation with the fans for having passing, finesse teams, but his teams always hit.† (source)
- She'd need time, he thought, time and more finesse than he was accustomed to employing.† (source)
- Sometimes it's about finesse, sometimes we're just on there spitting, so we try and be as raw as we can be onstage.† (source)
- Hoagland would say that now was the time for playing certain finesses, that in the wake of the activity arose those moments that could be manipulated.† (source)
- If I enter another field marshal's sphere of operations my presence challenges his authority, so it is considered political finesse for me to disappear.† (source)
- Long-standing rivalries between several of the towns, bitterness that a wise leader of an invading force would surely have twisted into an excellent advantage, have been mended by Kessell's blatant disregard of finesse and his displays of outrageous brutality.† (source)
- She felt exposed, finessed, put down.† (source)
- Dreary loutish words, spoken from an intimidating vantage point, no finesse, no class, callow and cruel, an utterance one might expect from a B-grade movie Nazi Schweinhund.† (source)
- Though I thought she lacked somewhat the finesse of a true professional.† (source)
- While I bullied him with subtle psychological torments, my mother took the direct approach and bullied him without finesse.† (source)
- You've been known to finesse, Powell.† (source)
- Peyton Manning showed finesse as he scrambled out of the pocket and threw a pass to the receiver.
- While Shaq often pounds away at a defense to score points, smaller players have to rely on finesse to find open shots.
- He heard scouts say, also, that he was a "finesse" player.† (source)
- Glen wouldn't say that, of course; that's why it was finesse.† (source)
- But …. to accuse him of being a "finesse" player?† (source)
- Finesse would have to wait, as would tenderness.† (source)
- He groped greedily with no finesse at all.† (source)
- It's already in you, but needs the route, the signs, the …. finesse.† (source)
- "But we're the Army, so together with finesse the occasional hammer will also be necessary.† (source)
- This time there was finesse, and there was tenderness.† (source)
- Smoothly done, and with a bit of finesse as well.† (source)
- I tell Jack that finesse is not a concept that agrees with him.† (source)
- We'll use that to finesse data out of her, if not an outright confession.† (source)
- He jiggled the lock with the points, finessed, and stepped back.† (source)
- I was well aware of Mrs. Barbour's light touch in tricky situations —her ability to manage delicate matters behind the scenes—and while she hadn't told me a direct lie, as far as I knew, information had definitely been elided and finessed.† (source)
- In other words, any true German mechanic, with a half-century of mechanical finesse behind him, would have concluded that this particular solution to this particular technical problem was perfect.† (source)
- Because what those idiots up in Ashland didn't understand was that "Ox" Papineau valued finesse over strength.† (source)
- Even in his wrestling days, lunging against three-hundred-pound behemoths with their hands hooked behind his neck, finesse always won out over simple strength.† (source)
- A few broken fingers, the added finesse of the broken arm, the shattered kneecaps—all prior to death.† (source)
- He pushes and shoves with little or no finesse, taking credit where none is his, claiming kills when he had nothing to do with them.† (source)
- It's the simplest finesse, Dennis Hoagland lesson number one, and only effective with virginals like Wen, who would never imagine anything beyond a simple polarity to the world.† (source)
- You'll work on subtlety, and finesse—and absolute control—but you managed it, and that's a start."† (source)
- I felt the moment was right to run a finesse play and leave them so they could have a full-blown talk about it, if just for the time I was off in the bathroom.† (source)
- No. This needs finesse.† (source)
- Being in thick with the Duke of Squamuglia, Pasquale plots to do away with young Niccolo by suggesting a game of hide-and-seek and then finessing him into crawling inside of an enormous cannon, which a henchman is then to set off, hopefully blowing the child, as Pasquale recalls ruefully, later on in the third act, Out in a bloody rain to feed our fields Amid the Maenad roar of nitre's song And sulfur's cantus firmus.† (source)
- Pas de finesse, seulement de l'audace !† (source)
- Then beginning in a low voice Uncle Pio would talk for an hour, analyzing the play, entering into a world of finesse in matters of voice and gesture and tempo, and often until dawn they would remain there declaiming to one another the lordly conversation of Calderon.† (source)
- Gummy Larson had sent Hubert Coffee, who, on account of his white suits and silk monogrammed drawers, was supposed to have finesse and the gentlemanly approach, to try to persuade Dr. Stanton to use his influence to get the Boss to throw the basic medical-center contract to Larson.† (source)
- Scarlett was used to men asking her to marry them, men much more attractive than Charles Hamilton, and men who had more finesse than to propose at a barbecue when she had more important matters on her mind.† (source)
- The madam went along with me for the money, and Einhorn paid with finesse and gave tips, and as I carried him through the parlor where my partner was with another man, smoking a cigarette.† (source)
- It was done with finesse and skill: the house surrounded by concealed men with drawn pistols, and the sheriff, followed by the deputy, getting himself for all his bulk swiftly and smartly flat against the cabin wall, out of range of any window.† (source)
- Having conceived the idea he proceeded to carry it out with considerable finesse.† (source)
- Only of course none of them have your finesse, you might call it.† (source)
- The sailor is frankness, the landsman is finesse.† (source)
- No, no! prince, this is finesse, thieves' finesse!† (source)
- No. "They're bully fellows, simply lovely, but they haven't got any finesse."† (source)
- A good realtor has to have more knowledge and finesse than any of 'em."† (source)
- With all domestic finesse of that kind he was hopelessly at variance.† (source)
- "It has wonderful finesse," he murmured, caressingly.† (source)
- But it is better to use a little finesse, you know.† (source)
- You will remember the finesse and delicacy that belong to military honor?† (source)
- —Mystery; Finesse—how they pervert the understanding!† (source)
- Raising their eyebrows, total strangers sitting nearby eavesdropped on the altercation, captivated by the passion and finesse of the interchange.† (source)
- "I am not finessing, and I am not in the least afraid of telling you; but I don't see the slightest reason why I should not have written."† (source)
- And if you talk natural to 'em, way we do here, and show finesse and what you might call a broad point of view, why, they think you're putting on side.† (source)
- He had, with the finesse and tact and suavity of a diplomat, removed himself from obligation, and the detachment of self, the casual thing be apparently made out of his magnificent championship, was bewildering and humiliating to Bo.† (source)
- No finessing, please.† (source)
- There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do, if he chuses, and that is, his duty; not by manoeuvring and finessing, but by vigour and resolution.† (source)
- Poor Boldwood had no more skill in finesse than a battering-ram, and he was uneasy with a sense of having made himself to appear stupid and, what was worse, mean.† (source)
- The Delaware heard and understood all that passed, though with Indian gravity and finesse he had sat with averted face, seemingly inattentive to a discourse in which he had no direct concern.† (source)
- With some finesse and negotiation, all the dark Methodists and Presbyterians were induced to join in a monster welcome at the Baptist Church; and as the day drew near, warm discussions arose on every corner as to the exact extent and nature of John's accomplishments.† (source)
- But the matter is of such importance, that one must _passer pardessus toutes ces finesses de sentiment.† (source)
- …he never changed his voice from the gentle flowing key to which he tuned his initial sentence, he never betrayed the slightest suspicion of enthusiasm; but all through the interminable narrative there ran a vein of impressive earnestness and sincerity, which showed me plainly that, so far from his imagining that there was anything ridiculous or funny about his story, he regarded it as a really important matter, and admired its two heroes as men of transcendent genius in 'finesse.'† (source)
- Albert was accompanied by Lucien Debray, who, joining in his friend's conversation, added some passing compliments, the source of which the count's talent for finesse easily enabled him to guess.† (source)
- Once again he touched him on the breast, as though his finger were the fine point of a small sword, with which, in delicate finesse, he ran him through the body, and said, "My friend, I will die, perpetuating the system under which I have lived."† (source)
- To be brief upon a vile topic, none of the low finesse was omitted, so customary upon similar occasions that it is a just matter for wonder how any are still found so besotted as to fall its victim.† (source)
- That's why I joined the hussars, thinking that here one would not need finesse; and he tells me that I am lying—so let him give me satisfaction…."† (source)
- "Really, sir," retorted the count, "have you attained the eminent situation in which you are, without having admitted, or even without having met with exceptions? and do you never use your eyes, which must have acquired so much finesse and certainty, to divine, at a glance, the kind of man by whom you are confronted?† (source)
- On the other hand the Huron resumed his seat by the side of his prisoner, the one continuing to ask questions with all the wily ingenuity of a practised Indian counsellor, and the other baffling him by the very means that are known to be the most efficacious in defeating the finesse of the more pretending diplomacy of civilization, or by confining his answers to the truth, and the truth only.† (source)
- Perhaps Catherine was wrong in not demanding the cause of that gentle emotion—but she was not experienced enough in the finesse of love, or the duties of friendship, to know when delicate raillery was properly called for, or when a confidence should be forced.† (source)
- I was shivering with fear for Jamie, who had given up finesse and was slashing savagely from side to side, beating back the two men who now faced him with sheer bloody-mindedness.† (source)
- Mr Bloom thoroughly acquiesced in the general gist of this though the mystical finesse involved was a bit out of his sublunary depth still he felt bound to enter a demurrer on the head of simple, promptly rejoining: —Simple?† (source)
- Why do you speak with such finesse?† (source)
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