Left-handed \Left"-hand`ed\, a.
1. Having the left hand or arm stronger and more dexterous
than the right; using the left hand and arm with more
dexterity than the right.
[1913 Webster]
2. Clumsy; awkward; unlucky; insincere; sinister; malicious;
as, a left-handed compliment.
[1913 Webster]
The commendations of this people are not always
left-handed and detractive. --Landor.
[1913 Webster]
3. Having a direction contrary to that of the hands of a
watch when seen in front; -- said of a twist, a rotary
motion, etc., looked at from a given direction.
[1913 Webster]
Left-handed marriage, a morganatic marriage. See
Morganatic.
Left-handed screw, a screw constructed to advance away from
the observer, when turned, as in a nut, with a left-handed
rotation. An ordinary wood screw is right-handed.
[1913 Webster] Left-handedness
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
left-handed
adj 1: using or intended for the lefts hand; "left-handed golfers
need left-handed clubs"; "left-handed scissors" [ant:
ambidextrous, right-handed]
2: (of marriages) illicit or informal; "in Colonial America
left-handed marriages between Frenchmen and Indians were
frequent"
3: (of marriages) of a marriage between one of royal or noble
birth and one of lower rank; valid but with the
understanding that the rank of the inferior remains
unchanged and offspring do not succeed to titles or
property of the superior [syn: morganatic]
4: rotating to the left [syn: levorotary, levorotatory]
5: ironically ambiguous; "a left-handed compliment"
6: not skillful in physical movement especially with the hands;
"a bumbling mechanic"; "a bungling performance";
"ham-handed governmental interference"; "could scarcely
empty a scuttle of ashes, so handless was the poor
creature"- Mary H. Vorse [syn: bumbling, bungling, butterfingered,
ham-fisted, ham-handed, handless, heavy-handed]
WordNet (r) 2.0
Left-handed
(Judg. 3:15; 20:16), one unable to use the right hand skilfully,
and who therefore uses the left; and also one who uses the left
as well as the right, ambidexter. Such a condition of the hands
is due to physical causes. This quality was common apparently in
the tribe of Benjamin.
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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