masterstroke

English

Etymology

From master +‎ stroke.

Noun

masterstroke (plural masterstrokes)

1. An action which demonstrates great skill or artistry.
   • 2012 September 15, Amy Lawrence, “Arsenal's Gervinho enjoys the joy of six against lowly Southampton”, in the Guardian‎^[1]:

     The Ivorian is a player with such a liking for improvisation it does not usually look like he has any more idea than anyone else what he is going to do next, so it was an interesting choice. As it turned out, it was a masterstroke. The striker was full of running, played with a more direct shoot-on-sight approach than normal and finished with two goals and an assist.

   • 2021 September 22, Stephen Roberts, “The writings on the wall...”, in RAIL, number 940, page 74:

     Paddington dates to 1838, although much of today's main line station is from 1854. And it is, of course, a Brunellian masterstroke.

Translations

Action demonstrating great skill

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 高招 (zh) (gāozhāo), 妙招 (miàozhāo)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: mestarisuoritus, mestarityö, mestariveto
• French: coup de maître (fr) m, prouesse (fr) f
• German: Meisterleistung (de) f
• Swedish: genidrag n

Anagrams

• strokemaster