How to Use finesse in a Sentence

finesse

1 of 2 noun

• She handled the interview questions with finesse.
• When the heart finesse wins, South plays safe in trumps.
  — Frank Stewart, The Mercury News, 5 Feb. 2024
• South will have a chance to go wrong by taking the club finesse.
  — Frank Stewart, The Mercury News, 8 Feb. 2024
• Includes the finesse of a Sauternes and the delicate fruit of a Friuli.
  — Tom Mullen, Forbes, 31 July 2022
• There’s not a full kitchen here, but the menu has an admirable amount of finesse to it.
  — Soleil Ho, San Francisco Chronicle, 17 Nov. 2022
• The humor of it for me was that Shanice has no finesse.
  — Selome Hailu, Variety, 23 May 2022
• South wins the next heart with the jack and finesses in diamonds.
  — Frank Stewart, The Mercury News, 19 Jan. 2024
• Pizza dough is an art and science that takes a whole lot of finesse.
  — Dana McMahan, The Courier-Journal, 14 June 2022
• Both will feed crowds, and both reveal a finesse in which the sweet seafood inside the cleaved shells remains lush.
  — Bill Addison, Los Angeles Times, 20 July 2023
• But the playoffs are a grittier brand of ball, and the Warriors do seem to get smaller and lighter and more finesse-y by the day.
  — Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 24 Apr. 2022
• The puffy wide satin band holds everything in place, and adds an extra bit of finesse to any look.
  — Halie Lesavage, Harper's BAZAAR, 22 Dec. 2022
• As such, the vessel showcases true made in Italy flair and finesse.
  — Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 15 Feb. 2024
• The kitchen has finesse, a honed sense of gustatory rhythm.
  — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Oct. 2022
• Porzingis is a finesse big with the ability to post and shoot over defenders, not go through them.
  — Gary Washburn, BostonGlobe.com, 22 June 2023
• Smith is more of a finesse player, who relies on three-point shooting and pull-up jumpers to mark his path.
  — Morten Jensen, Forbes, 30 Apr. 2022
• No one in Los Angeles had approached mariscos with quite the same merging of soul and finesse.
  — Bill Addison, Los Angeles Times, 13 June 2023
• The result is a reel with the finesse needed to land the smallest native, but with enough horsepower to tame the largest steelhead.
  — Morgan Lyle, Field & Stream, 4 May 2023
• If that film can even remotely approach the somber blockbuster finesse of the Matt Reeves films, there could be hope.
  — Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 11 Nov. 2023
• Tubelis is a versatile big man that can beat you with finesse or power.
  — Los Angeles Times, 7 Mar. 2023
• Sacrificed in that policy was some of the breadth and finesse that comes running the equipment in pairs.
  — Zachariah Hughes, Anchorage Daily News, 24 Dec. 2022
• The feat has been attempted countless times, once with finesse.
  — Stacy Schiff, WSJ, 17 Feb. 2023
• Large strollers and rollers may require some angling finesse.
  — Elana Scherr, Car and Driver, 4 Oct. 2022
• Suman, on the other hand, has etched out the concept with utter competence and finesse.
  — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 14 Feb. 2024
• Not so easy now, where a return to more finesse, timing, and pace would also be welcome.
  — Tara Sullivan, BostonGlobe.com, 27 Feb. 2023
• The cookie has a finesse to it, well balanced, not overly sweet and with the toffee notes of brown butter throughout.
  — Jenn Harris, Los Angeles Times, 9 Oct. 2023
• Better yet, the best linen shirts for men do more than just keep you dry upstairs—they’ll add a dash of unflappable finesse to any look.
  — Bernd Fischer, Men's Health, 2 Aug. 2022
• That’s the background tragedy that spurs the bereft woodcarver — voiced with crusty finesse by David Bradley — to one night drunkenly build a spindly boy out of pine.
  — Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 8 Nov. 2022
• South wins, returns a heart to dummy and finesses in clubs, winning at least nine tricks.
  — Frank Stewart, The Mercury News, 30 Jan. 2024
• Such finesse can be seen on the vase in question, which is resplendent with depictions of clouds, cranes, fans, flutes, and bats.
  — Jane Recker, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 May 2022
• In the age of 4K handheld devices and DIY cinema, this lack of finesse speaks to a sense of intense reality.
  — Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 16 Feb. 2024

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finesse

2 of 2 verb

• She is just trying to finesse the issue.
• He managed to finesse a deal through bargaining.
• At 3NT South took the ace of spades and led the ten of clubs to finesse.
  — Frank Stewart, The Mercury News, 1 June 2017
• Of course, there are all sorts of ways to finesse cap numbers.
  — Kevin Sherrington, Dallas News, 7 Mar. 2021
• His hands are known for fighting, not finesse around the net.
  — Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press, 18 Feb. 2018
• So the Cynic shrugged, drew trumps and led a club to finesse with dummy’s queen.
  — Frank Stewart, The Mercury News, 7 July 2019
• In his 15 years at C/D, he's learned how to strap the test gear to cars and finesse them to get the best possible times.
  — Tony Quiroga, Car and Driver, 7 Oct. 2022
• There were rules to the game, of course, ways to finesse a certain look and attitude.
  — Jason Parham, Los Angeles Times, 16 Sep. 2021
• Tahj Staveskie showed strong ball-handling, court awareness and finesse around the rim.
  — Tyler J. Davis, Detroit Free Press, 14 Mar. 2021
• Even your own staff never learned to finesse that aspect of the business.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 23 Aug. 2021
• When West discarded, South took the ace of hearts and finessed with dummy’s jack.
  — Frank Stewart, The Mercury News, 4 Feb. 2024
• Stylez took a few strands and finessed them into two swirly loops, one near each temple, to complete the style.
  — Gabi Thorne, Allure, 13 Mar. 2023
• Frenck said there wasn't any time -- nor any reason -- to finesse the dosing last year.
  — Maggie Fox, CNN, 22 Sep. 2021
• For about a decade, the tax abatements and legal loopholes that Trump was able to finesse came about, in large part, because of Cohn.
  — Marie Brenner, The Hive, 4 July 2017
• The backup big man tried to finesse the ball into the basket to beat the game clock, but even that point-blank attempt rattled out at the buzzer.
  — Tom Green | [e-mail], al, 11 Mar. 2022
• Declarer finessed with dummy’s queen — and had a calamity: East won and led a trump, and West took the jack, king and ace and led his last trump.
  — Frank Stewart, The Mercury News, 15 Jan. 2024
• Then, my producers and I read it back and finessed it some and read it together.
  — Michael Schneider, Variety, 2 Aug. 2023
• If clubs broke 4-1, Louie would finesse in diamonds, winning 12 tricks if East had the queen.
  — Frank Stewart, The Mercury News, 5 June 2019
• Julius Randle and RJ Barrett, the team’s two best players, prefer to barrel to the hoop rather than finesse a foul.
  — Stefan Bondy, courant.com, 31 Oct. 2021
• Krutwig is an old-school big man who uses his footwork and finesse over jump-out-of-the-gym athleticism.
  — Scott Gleeson, USA TODAY, 21 Mar. 2021
• So, with the brand-new eighth-gen iPad (starting at $329), Apple continues to finesse it.
  — Jacob Krol, CNN Underscored, 24 Sep. 2020
• Not all Republicans have been so quick to finesse their stances.
  — Katie Glueck, New York Times, 12 Oct. 2022
• You fish for tips on how to finesse a job promotion or find a cool, cheap vacation.
  — Maria Panaritis, Philly.com, 13 Dec. 2017
• A Junior Olympic sized pool with dedicated lap lanes is a great place to finesse your freestyle.
  — Lee Ann James, Orange County Register, 3 Feb. 2017
• The human quality of these clothes gave Jones’s finesse a fresh sweetness.
  — Rachel Tashjian, Harper's BAZAAR, 11 Sep. 2022
• This all comes at a time when the foreign affairs menu is adding hearty entrees that will take time, resources, and finesse to tackle.
  — Tovin Lapan, Fortune, 23 Aug. 2019
• Leaving statutes vague, however, has been a way for Congress to finesse fights.
  — John Schwartz, New York Times, 15 Oct. 2020
• In a studio filled with mannequins and old Singer sewing machines, Anyah Lewis, a senior, finessed a set of plastic moth wings.
  — Alex Vadukul, New York Times, 31 May 2023
• The process may inspire him to finesse the curve of an incision line, say, or tweak the dimensions of a breast or the placement of a belly button.
  — Jolene Edgar, Allure, 1 Dec. 2023
• The modern memoir is the proving ground for our national obsession with trauma, a place to gawk at whoever comes through the emotional meat grinder with the good sense and talent to finesse their damage into a redemption song.
  — Hillary Kelly, The New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2024

Last Updated: 5 Sep 2024