# steady-handed
## English
### Alternative forms

* steadyhanded

### Etymology

From steady +‎ handed.

### Adjective

steady-handed (comparative more steady-handed, superlative most steady-handed)
* Capable of smooth, sure movements.
** 2000 May, Jerry Miller, “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?”, in Indianapolis Monthly, volume 23, number 10, page 65:Yet despite its good intentions, the IRL has attracted more untried, fuzz-faced young gunslingers-in-waiting than tight-jawed, steady-handed shootists, pulling in only two drivers who still fit the mold.
** 2009, Barbara-Jo Lucchine Kruczek, Play Me a Song, →ISBN, page 159:Uncle Tommy, the once steady-handed Gene Krupa of the Vernon Troubadours and the Palmer Orchestra, whose sticks never missed a snare or a cymbal, missed the bowl of meatballs on the table.
** 2010, Charles E. Day, The Tenth Man: Living Black in Blue, →ISBN, page 107:He was a steady-handed shooter with a heavy stick and the ability to back a ball up or make it spin left or right and position a queue ball behind the next shot to be taken–unique skills, even before Minnesota Fats.
* Executed with smooth, sure movements.
** 2010, FAA, Aviation Instructor's Handbook, page 2-21:Theories about how a skill evolves from the awkward and deliberate performance associated with the cognitive stage to the smooth and steady-handed performance of the automatic response stage have one thing in common: progress appears to depend on repeated practice.
** 2011, Mel Harmon, A Trout In The Milk: Profiles In Prosecution, →ISBN, page 34:It's hard if you work at it easy, and it's easy if you work hard at setting your sight on a specific marker at the end of the field and on steady-handed steering toward the marker.
** 2012, Ross Bentley-Davies, Walkers Creek: A Western, →ISBN, page 17:The barber laughs so hard at the simple answer to the riddle that Logan fears for his chances of a steady-handed shave.
* Consistent and reliable.
** 2005, Peter C. Bjarkman, Diamonds Around the Globe, →ISBN, page 270:The final phase of Mexican League history was launched only after the sudden death of Jorge Pasquel in 1955; it consisted of steady-handed rebuilding of league fortunes under the capable direction of a new league management.
** 2012, Hossam Nasser, From Richard Kimble to Barack Obama: America as Viewed by an Egyptian-American who Loves Her, →ISBN:Foreign policy has to be dealt in a steady-handed and consistent manner.
** 2014, Carsten Jensen, The Right and the Welfare State, →ISBN, page 89:The Conservative Party under Thatcher was famously steady-handed in targeting certain elements of the then-existing British labor market structure and complementing social programs.

#### Derived terms

* steady-handedness

### Adverb

steady-handed (comparative more steady-handed, superlative most steady-handed)
* In a steady-handed manner.
** 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company:Yet he faced his foemen with dauntless courage, dashing in, springing back, sure-footed, steady-handed, with a point which seemed to menace three at once.
** 2004, Nate Cleveland, Bare Hands, Numb Skulls, →ISBN, page 61:The boy caught it steady-handed and grinned wide. “Oh good hands, lad!
** 2005, Maurice Gee, Scornful Moon, →ISBN:I moved beside her and was shocked, not by method, not by truth, for it was true, but by her ability to paint clear-eyed, steady-handed, and show this thing.