left-handed

3 definitions found

left-handed - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  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

left-handed - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  left-handed
      adj 1: using or intended for the left hand; "left-handed golfers
             need left-handed clubs"; "left-handed scissors" [ant:
             ambidextrous, right-handed, two-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, left-handed]
      4: rotating to the left [syn: levorotary, levorotatory,
         left-handed]
      5: ironically ambiguous; "a left-handed compliment"
      6: lacking physical movement skills, 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, left-handed]

left-handed - Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary :

  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.