left-handed
/lɛftˈhandɪd
/adjective
1(Of a person) using the left hand more naturally than the right: a left-handed batsman...
- It's one thing to be able to draw a gun, but it's another thing to be able to do it with your left hand if you're not left-handed.
- One thing I can't do is forge his signature, largely because he's left-handed and I'm not.
- He didn't understand why everyone was so interested to see him write, and the judge pointed out that he was left-handed.
Synonyms
sinistral
informal southpaw
1.1(Of a tool or item of equipment) made to be used with the left hand: left-handed golf clubs...
- At the time of writing, there are very few left-handed instruments being stocked in York.
- Now the interesting bit is that the left-handed ones have hooks, and the right-handed ones have ridges.
- Even though I grew up in Canada, where there are more left-handed golfers than in the States, left-handed equipment wasn't readily available.
1.2Made or done with the left hand: my left-handed scrawl...
- He wasn't at all strong at left-handed techniques, whereas Keziah had been told from a very early age that there were no lefts and rights in fighting.
2(Of a screw) advanced by turning anticlockwise.The screw arm has right-handed threads on one side of the brass wheel and left-handed threads on the other.
2.1 Biology (Of a spiral shell or helix) sinistral.Recent structural experiments have suggested that the domain may also contain left-handed polyproline helices....
- In fact, a wide range of structural proteins have coils in which two or three helices are wound around each other to form a left-handed superhelix conformation.
- It customarily refers to the number of monomers in one turn of actin's left-handed helix.
2.2(Of a racecourse) turning anticlockwise: Newbury’s left-handed track...
- It is a left-handed, wide track suited to powerful gallopers and is seen as being flat and fair.
- We are hoping that he will be happier at Cheltenham with its left-handed track and a bigger hill.
- A left-handed track, it is situated on the Welsh side of the border with England.
3Perverse: we take a left-handed pleasure in our errors
3.1(Especially of a compliment) ambiguous.It may seem a left-handed compliment to say The Industry Standard was by far the best and most professional of this lot, but I mean it sincerely....
- There is nothing Mosley takes for granted about Wright, giving what might be a left-handed compliment in saying Winky sometimes fights to the level of his competition.
- What I just said could be considered a left-handed compliment.
Synonyms
backhanded, ambiguous, equivocal, uncertain, double-meaning, double-edged;
dubious, indirect, enigmatic, cryptic, paradoxical, ironic, sardonic, insincere, hypocritical
adverb
With the left hand: a significant number play the game left-handed...
- Schaffer had Murray hit left-handed every other day before home games for about three weeks.
- Michael twisted painfully out of the way and swung his sword left-handed in an awkward but powerful arc.
- He bowled the following season left-handed and even bowled three regionals as a lefty, but had no luck.
Derivatives
left-handedly
left-handedness
/ noun ...- Researchers have posed various theories about the causes of left-handedness.
- Right- or left-handedness then develops, with the dominant hand achieving better fine motor skills and greater strength.
- Having written about left-handedness in the past, I knew that in less enlightened times left-handed infants were often forced to use their right.