Revised as of
11 July 2023
It’s Christmas!! I wanna go on a sleigh ride! With a little sleight of hand, we can do some magic and squeeze us all on, especially if a few of us are slight of build.
Do keep in mind that sleight is strictly a noun.
Exploring Later . . .
You may also want to explore the posts “Slay vs Sleigh vs Sley“.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Sleigh | Sleight | Slight |
|---|---|---|
All-wood Horse-drawn Sleigh from Serbia is by Gmihail and under the CC BY-SA 3.0 rs license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
Display Card Flourish is by ShahanB is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Shahan Bedrosian performing his card flourish Poleaxe in a sleight of hand magic trick. |
A close-up of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar with Slight Smile is by Nadar and in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. |
| Part of Grammar: | ||
| Noun 1; Verb, intransitive 2
Plural for the noun: sleighs Third person present verb: sleighs |
Noun
Plural: sleights |
Adjective; Noun; Verb, transitive
Plural for the noun: slights Third person present verb: slights |
| Noun: A vehicle mounted on runners for use on ice and snow drawn by horses or reindeer, especially one used for passengers Another name for sledge Verb, intransitive: |
[Literary] The use of dexterity or cunning, especially so as to deceive
Skill
An artifice
Cunning
|
Adjective: Small in degree
[Of a person or their build] Not sturdy and strongly built Noun: Verb, transitive: [Archaic] Raze or destroy a fortification |
| Examples: | ||
| Noun: Coffins were transported in improvised sleighs – usually barn doors taken from their hinges and pulled with ropes. A tiny gentleman bows to a lady, and children pull each other in sleighs. It’s all very depressing especially seeing as we invested in some sleighs a few years back. We have been collecting in Swindon for about 50 years, and that sleigh had been built in 1969. Verb, intransitive: During these months, its countless lakes freeze solid, providing perfect surfaces for skidoo driving, reindeer sleighing, and Siberian husky safaris. Raymond the reindeer will be lapping up the attention in Bourton again this Christmas despite fears that he would be sleighing away. It was unequalled skiing, skating, and sleighing in the countryside. |
Except by sleight of logic, the two positions cannot be harmonized.
It was a nifty bit of sleight of hand that got the ashtray into the correct position. This is financial sleight of hand of the worst sort. What we’re faced with are psychic sharps, like card sharps: sleight of hand, sleight of mind. It is also deftly staged using an impressive sleight of hand and sleight of eye. |
Adjective: Every year senior citizens get a slight increase in their Social Security, which is promptly devoured by the increase of their Medicare payments. It was supposed to be a slight ankle injury. The chance of success is very slight. It was a slight plot with no real strength. She was slight and delicate-looking. Noun: He was seething at the slight to his authority. The details of supposed slights and implied insults are trivia. Verb, transitive: It seems Mr Wyatt thought the injured person slighted him in some way, but this offense is totally out of character. They can be excessive in their devotions to Carlyle and Henry James, and their denunciations can at times be annoying in slighting great writers such as Thackeray and Jane Austen. A Council determined whether the Fort should be kept or slighted. In recognition of the part that castles had played in the war, the majority of surviving buildings were deliberately slighted by the victorious parliamentarians. It was strongly slighted and used as a quarry for the town houses. |
| Derivatives: | ||
| Noun: sleigh bed, sleigh bell, sleigher, sleighing | Adjective: slighter, slightest, slighting, slightish Adverb: slightingly, slightly Noun: slightness |
|
| History of the Word: | ||
| Middle English sleghth meaning cunning, skill is from the Old Norse slægth, from slægr meaning sly. | Middle English:
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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Sleigh vs Sleight vs Slight
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Apple Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com: sleight
Pinterest Photo Credits
Santa Claus Driving His Sleigh is under the CC0 license, via pxfuel, <https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-olgri>. empty gifts and promises by Torbakhopper is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr, <https://www.flickr.com/photos/gazeronly/6527323805>.
