adroit

Definition

deft, dexterous, or skillful

Etymology

Borrowed from French adroit, from French à (“on the; to”) (from Old French a (“to; towards”), from Latin ad (“to; towards”), from Proto-Indo-European *ád (“at; near”)) + French droit (“right”) (from Old French droit, dreit, from Late Latin drictus, syncopated form of Latin dīrēctus (“laid straight; direct, straight; level; upright”), perfective passive participle of dīrigō (“to lay straight”), from dis- (“apart, in two”) (from Proto-Indo-European *dwís (“twice; in two”)) + regō (“to govern, rule; to guide, steer”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃réǵeti (“to be straightening, setting upright”))).

Example Sentences

• "A ſimple lad, with a whip in one hand, and the other locked in the arm of a young girl, is ſo loſt in gaping aſtoniſhment, that an adroit branch of the family of the Filches is clearing his pockets of their contents."
• "[W]hile the press has teemed with a thousand better modes of defending Christianity, unbelievers had been asleep all the while, and dreamed of no adroiter methods of attacking it: […]"
• "By adroit management the wooden float is made to rise on the other side of the mass, so that now having girdled the whale, the chain is readily made to follow suit; and being slipped along the body, is at last locked fast round the smallest part of the tail, at the point of junction with its broad flukes or lobes."