deft

Yet Cusk has found a large fan base for her work, mainly because she is a deft excavator of the human psyche, a writer who can articulate emotional states with uncanny precision and insight.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026

Whether he is pulling a pint, tossing a builder's helmet in the air or running with Olympic medallist Mo Farah, the UK's new prime minister Andy Burnham has embraced social media with a deft touch.

From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026

He is also a deft social satirist, no more so than when skewering his characters’ politically correct pretensions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

Borgli’s deft mixture of punchy dark humor and thorny subjects makes for a distinctly American movie that only a Norwegian could think up.

From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026

Milo made a deft grimace of tribulation and turned away.

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

Andrew Bayliss, the author of “Sparta: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Superpower,” is a defter writer than Xenophon.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 25, 2026

In between the defter displays, Johnny Rockett, the clown, lampoons various circus skills.

From New York Times ● Nov. 25, 2022

Even defter is Terrance Fleming’s channeling of a hippie Orsino, who lounges on cushions in the center of the in-the-round stage.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 9, 2021

Whatever one may wonder about Özil’s motivations, he has shown a defter touch on social media than most of his teammates have managed on the pitch since the season began.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 30, 2020

But much that was useless has been discarded, and of what is left a defter and more distinctly literary use is made.

From A Short History of French Literature by George Saintsbury

HBO’s “True Detective: Night Country” is the deftest revival of a dead franchise I’ve seen in a long time, and “Dune: Prophecy” is an elegant extension of a cinematic phenomenon.

From Salon ● Dec. 27, 2024

I remember late in the day on the windswept Friday standing behind the 14th green as he conjured the deftest of chips to get up and down from another missed green.

From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2024

Each serving of pad Thai hor khai, made by the deftest street vendors, is wrapped in a silk-thin omelet.

From New York Times ● Mar. 17, 2022

Jay Roach’s movie follows the tribulations—and exhausted triumphs—of Dalton Trumbo, one of the deftest of American screenwriters.

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 9, 2015

They were, however, composed by men of culture, imbued with classical learning of some sort, and prepared by scholarship for the deftest and most delicate manipulation of the Latin language.

From Wine, Women, and Song Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse by John Addington Symonds