Left-handed

3 definitions found

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

  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

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  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}]

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  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.