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▪ I. left-handed, a.
(Stress variable.)
[-ed2.]
1. Having the left hand more serviceable than the right; using the left hand by preference.
a1485[see left hand 3]. c1530L. Cox Rhet. (1899) 62 The yonge man after warde was named Sceuola, whiche is as muche to say in Englyssh as lefte handed. a1627Middleton & Rowley Changeling iii. iii. 121 I'll go up and play left-handed Orlando amongst the madmen. 1709Steele Tatler No. 59 ⁋5 They are all Left-handed, and have always been very expert at Single Rapier. 1892Pall Mall G. 4 July 6/1 Perhaps some physiologist can explain..why a left-handed bowler is nearly always a right-handed bat.
2. fig.
†a. Crippled, defective. Obs.
b. Awkward; clumsy, inapt. (Cf. L. lævus, F. gauche.)
†c. Characterized by underhand dealings. Obs.
a.1629Leather 10 How many..Manuall Trades must be left-handed and go lame, if Leather..bee taken from them. 1636J. Taylor (Water P.) Catal. Tavernes (1877) 52 Chertsey..there is a decayed left-handed bridge over the river: I wish it mended.
b.1613Beaum. & Fl. Captain iii. v, That thou mayst know him perfectly, hee's one Of a left-handed making, a lanck thing. 1655Fuller Hist. Camb. (1840) 110 A good artist is left-handed to no profession. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) xviii. 197 A minor critic..puzzling himself to death with twenty left-handed conjectures about nothing. 1863A. Blomfield Mem. Bp. Blomfield I. vii. 203 Disproving the assertion of Fuller..that spiritual men are generally left-handed in secular affairs.
c.1694Motteux Rabelais v. v. (1737) 19 Ill-natur'd Left-handed Godlings and Vejoves. 1707J. Stevens tr. Quevedo's Com. Wks. (1709) 328 'Tis not safe trusting a Left Handed Man with Money.
3. Ambiguous, doubtful, questionable. † In medical language: Spurious.
1612Sir G. Paule Life Abp. Whitgift 44 [They] are close hypocrites and walke in a left-handed policie. 1625Gill Sacr. Philos. i. 39 For the avoyding of some left-handed opinions concerning Him. 1650B. Discolliminium 17 They are dextrously pragmatick in all Left-handed worke. 1735–8Bolingbroke On Parties 2 There is need of that left-handed Wisdom. 1775Adair Amer. Ind. 452 Lest necessity should compel her..to pay..dear for her left-handed wisdom. 1804Med. & Phys. Jrnl. XII. 63 The spurious left-handed inflammation of erysipelas. 1807–8W. Irving Salmag. xiii. (1860) 307 We are indebted to the world for little else than left-handed favors. 1809Malkin Gil Blas iv. vii. §18, I gave a left-handed blessing to Euphrasia. 1824–9Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. 1846 II. 228 Thou hast some left-handed business in the neighbourhood, no doubt. 1881Saintsbury Dryden i 6 To diminish the force of this very left-handed compliment. 1892Nation (N.Y.) 22 Dec. 481/3 Dr. White..had to put up with a left-handed Scotch ordination to his bishopric. 1899Law Jrnl. 11 Nov. 577/2 If this exemption..was designed as a concession to farmers, it is a curiously left-handed one. 1914‘High Jinks, Jr.’ Choice Slang 14 Left handed compliment, one that may be taken either as a compliment or in the opposite way. 1953Time 3 Aug. 36/1 An enthusiastic patter of applause came from the British press, including a left-handed compliment from the Manchester Guardian that he was not at all like the movie-type American. 1972Ulster Folklife XVIII. 94 In the dialect of Donegal..left-handed betokens ‘malicious, underhand’; a left-handed blessing is a euphemism for a malediction or curse, and a left-handed friend is ‘an enemy’. 1974A. Douglas Noah's Ark Murders vi. 54 ‘I'm not trying to date you.’ ‘Well, that's a left-handed compliment,’ she complained.
4. Ill-omened, inauspicious, sinister. Of a deity: Unpropitious. (Cf. L. lævus.) ? Obs.
1609B. Jonson Sil. Wom. iii. ii, That would not be put off with left-handed cries. 1650T. B[ayley] Worcester's Apoph. Ep. Ded. 2 The (Left-handed) stroaks of fortune, which have lately fallen so heavily upon your Illustrious Family. 1678Dryden & Lee Œdipus i. i. D.'s Wks. 1883 VI. 151 And while Jove holds us out the bowl of joy..'tis dashed with gall By some left-handed god. 1809Malkin Gil Blas vi. i. ⁋9 Was not that a left-handed dream for him, master secretary?
5. Of a marriage: Literally, one in which the bridegroom gives the bride his left hand instead of his right (as was the custom at morganatic weddings in Germany); hence, morganatic. Said also of the parties so married, and of the issue of the marriage.
Occasionally applied to fictitious or illegal marriages, or to unions formed without marriage, and to their offspring.
a1642Killigrew Parson's Wed. i. i, Do you not know he's married according to the Rogue's Liturgy? a Left-handed Bridegroom. 1653–4Whitelocke Jrnl. Swed. Emb. (1772) I. 280 He marryed the king of Denmarke's daughter by a left-handed wife (as they are there called). 1760Foote Minor i. Wks. 1799 I. 235 A left-handed marriage, in the language of the newspapers. 1788H. Walpole Remin. i. 19 The children of a left-handed alliance are not entitled to inherit. 1835Southey Cowper's Life & Wks. I. 102 His mistress, whom he [Churchill] considered now as his left-handed wife, united to him by moral ties. 1839Lett. fr. Madras xxv. (1843) 274 The half-caste young left-handed ladies look down upon the poor little honestly-born Europeans. 1861Thackeray Four Georges i, [They] contracted left-handed marriages after the princely fashion of those days. 1885Manch. Exam. 21 Jan. 5/2 Caroline Bauer..represents herself..as having..become the left-handed wife of the late King of Belgium. 1925T. Dreiser Amer. Trag. (1926) ii. xxii. 308 The pleasures of this left-handed honeymoon were at full tide. 1935A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 70/2 Left handed wife, a kept woman.
fig.1865Lowell Scotch the Snake Prose Wks. 1890 V. 260 Shall we succeed better in trying a second left-handed marriage between democracy and another form of aristocracy?
6. In various uses.
a. Of an implement: Adapted to the left hand or arm, or for use by a left-handed person.
b. Placed on the left hand.
c. Of a blow: Delivered with the left hand.
a1653G. Daniel Idyll v. 42 Rather then want a Target, Perkins Tents Are Search't vp, for Left-handed Implements. 1752Hume Ess. & Treat. (1817) II. 450 It is drawn only..from the left-handed vessel. 1814Sporting Mag. XLIV. 240 Hall met him with a left-handed facer. 1825Knapp & Baldw. Newgate Cal. IV. 335/1 A left-handed gun, as the lock was at this side.
7. In scientific and technical use: Characterized by a direction or rotation to the left; producing such a rotation in the plane of a polarized ray. (Cf. lævo-.)
1812–16J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 74 As the tool meets the wood, so it cuts a left-handed screw. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 143 If the stone revolves the other way..the mill is termed a left-handed one. 1831Brewster Optics xxvi. 218 Hence, in reference to this quality, quartz may be divided into right-handed and left-handed quartz. 1851–6Woodward Mollusca 46 Left-handed, or reversed varieties of spiral shells have been met with. c1865J. Wylde in Orr's Circ. Sci. I. 84/2 If..these colours succeed each other in any body when the analyser is turned towards the left hand, then such is said to have a left-handed polarisation. 1884F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 141 [A] left-handed movement. Ibid. 227 [A] Left Handed Fusee.
Hence leftˈhandedly adv., leftˈhandedness.
a1631Donne Poems (1633) 77 Although a squint left-handednesse Be ungracious; yet we cannot want that hand. 1854Scoffern in Orr's Circ. Sci., Chem. 82 The amount of right-handedness or left-handedness displayed by the solution. 1872O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf.-t. viii. (1885) 203 The subject of what we may call moral left-handedness. 1882Athenæum 30 Dec. 904/3 A representation of the Apollo Belvedere..holding out..left-handedly enough, a problematical scaring ægis.
▪ II. left-handed, adv.
[f. left hand.]
Towards the left; with the left hand.
1848Sporting Life 1 Jan. 241/2 He also bats left-handed. 1851Illustr. London News XVIII. 133/2 This nut is cut..left-handed. 1909Chambers's Jrnl. Oct. 651/2 The great stag..swinging left-handed..passed Culworth. 1909E. H. Miles Lessons Lawn Tennis (ed. 3) xv. 79, I do not know why ladies should not beat right-handed men players if the latter were compelled to play left-handed. 1928Observer 19 Feb. 24/4 You leave the Oundle road and turn left-handed for Uppingham. 1929Morning Post 30 Dec. 13/1 Hounds..swinging left-handed past Edgecote House. 1974Country Life 7 Mar. 477/1 We rode left-handed beyond the Letham woods as our fox set his mask for Canty hall. |