palmistries

Noun

palmistry (usually uncountable, plural palmistries)

1. (usually) Telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand.
   • Chiromantie is a coniecturyng by beholdyng the lynes, or wryncles of the handes called commonly Palmistry.1546, Thomas Langley, An Abridgement of the Notable Woorke of Polidore Vergile, London, Book 1, Chapter 18, p. 34b

   Synonyms:

   chirognomy, chirography, chiromancy, handreading, palm reading

   1. (countable, usually) A book on palmistry; a system of palmistry.
      • No living palmistries can spell
        The bird-runes on the stretched silk of her hand1977, Peter Scupham, The Hinterland, Oxford University Press, page 27
2. (obsolete, rare, usually) A dexterous use or trick of the hand.
   • In the Height of his Good-humour, meeting a common Beggar upon the Road who was no Conjuror, as he went to relieve him he found his Pocket was pick’d: That being a Kind of Palmistry at which this Race of Vermin are very dextrous.1711, Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, The Spectator, Volume 2, No. 130, 30 July, 1711, London: J. and R. Tonson, 12th edition, 1739, p. 182

   Synonyms:

   legerdemain, sleight of hand