Savoir Faire (French)

Ready wit; skill in getting out of a scrape; hence “Vivre de son savoir-faire,” to live by one’s wits; “Avoir du savoir-faire,” to be up to snuff, to know a thing or two.

“He had great confidence in his savoir-faire.”—Sir W. Scott: Guy Mannering, chap. xxxiv.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.