Word.ws English Dictionary

deft

UK/dɛft/

deft adjective: quick and neat in action; skillful.

Adjective

deft (comparative defter, superlative deftest)

  1. Quick and neat in action; skillful.
    • He assembled it in one fluid, deft motion.
    • Alvarez then got on the scoresheet after the hosts carved open the Huddersfield defence with some intricate passing before the Argentina forward's deft finish rolled into the net.2024 January 7, Gary Rose, “Manchester City 5-0 Huddersfield Town”, in BBC Sport

deft meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Telugu and Malayalam

deft in Tamil

கைவந்த, செய்கிறமிக்க, திறனுடை

deft in Urdu

چالاک, ماہر, سبک دست, تیز فہم

deft in Telugu

skillful
చాకచక్యము cākacakyamu, నేర్పు nērpu

deft in Malayalam

കൈമിടുക്കുളള, സാമർത്ഥ്യമുളള, ഉചിതമായ
More languagesFewer languages
deft in Kannada
ಚುರುಕು, ಕುಶಲ, ಚತುರ, ನಾಜೂಕಾದ
deft in Persian
چابک čâbok

Examples of deft in a sentence

  • Her little hands were amazingly deft. One time we needed to retrieve a bobbin from behind the machine, and she was the one who managed to grab it!
  • With his show-business background, Reagan was unusually deft at this type of verbal buck and wing.
  • Who could miss this real-life king’s deft allusion to the importunities of the overweening pseudo-king in the White House?

All 12 example sentences with deft

Forms of deft

comparativedefter
superlativedeftest

Origin of deft

From Middle English defte, daft (“gentle”), from Old English dæfte (“mild, gentle, meek”), from Proto-West Germanic *daftī (“fitting, suitable”), derived from *dabaną (“to be suitable”). Near cognates include Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌳𐍉𐍆𐍃 (gadōfs, “suitable”), West Frisian deftich (“distinguished”), Dutch deftig (“distinguished”), German deftig (“coarse”). Further cognates include Russian добро (dobro, “wealth, good”) and Latin faber (“craftsman; skillful”). Doublet of daft.

Words formed from deft

Words that rhyme with deft

Questions about deft

What does deft mean?
Deft means quick and neat in action; skillful.
What is deft in Tamil?
Deft in Tamil is கைவந்த, செய்கிறமிக்க, திறனுடை. See Deft meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is deft?
Deft is an adjective.
How do you pronounce deft?
Deft is pronounced /dɛft/ (UK).

Words near deft in the dictionary

  1. defructosylated
  2. defrutum
  3. defs
  4. defs.
  5. DEFSMAC
  6. deft
  7. deft-handed
  8. deft-handedly
  9. deft-handedness
  10. defter
  11. defterdar

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deft (page history and authors); deft (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); deft (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); deft (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); deft (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-deft.ogg.

Cite this entry: “deft.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deft. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.