Backhanded

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Backhanded \Back"hand`ed\, a.
     1. With the hand turned backward; as, a backhanded blow.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Indirect; awkward; insincere; sarcastic; as, a backhanded
        compliment.


        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Turned back, or inclining to the left; as, backhanded
        letters.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  backhanded \back"hand`ed\, a. & adv. (Sport)
     Stroked with a backhand[2]; as, a backhanded drive.
     [PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  backhanded
       adj 1: (of racket strokes) made across the body with back of hand
              facing direction of stroke [syn: {backhand(a)}] [ant:
              {forehand(a)}]
       2: roundabout or ambiguous; "attacks from tht source amounted
          to a backhanded compliment to his integrity"; "a
          backhanded and dishonest way of reaching his goal"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  43 Moby Thesaurus words for "backhanded":
     O-shaped, abusive, ambagious, atrocious, backhand, calumnious,
     circuitous, circular, contumelious, deflectional, degrading,
     deviant, deviating, deviative, devious, digressive, discursive,
     divagational, divergent, excursive, helical, humiliating, indirect,
     insolent, insulting, left-handed, meandering, oblique, offensive,
     orbital, out-of-the-way, outrageous, rotary, round, roundabout,
     scurrile, scurrilous, side, sidelong, sinister, sinistral, spiral,
     unspeakable