/fi ness"/ , n. , v. , finessed, finessing .
n.
1. extreme delicacy or subtlety in action, performance, skill, discrimination, taste, etc.
2. skill in handling a difficult or highly sensitive situation; adroit and artful management: exceptional diplomatic finesse.
3. a trick, artifice, or stratagem.
4. Bridge , Whist. an attempt to win a trick with a card while holding a higher card not in sequence with it, in the hope that the card or cards between will not be played.
v.i.
5. to use finesse or artifice.
6. to make a finesse at cards.
v.t.
7. to bring about by finesse or artifice.
8. to avoid; circumvent.
9. to make a finesse with (a card).
10. to force the playing of (a card) by a finesse.
[ 1400-50; late ME: degree of excellence or purity finitia. See FINE 1 , -ICE ]
Syn. 1, 2. tact, diplomacy, savoir faire, circumspection, sensitivity, sensibility.