hardhanded
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more hardhanded
form: most hardhanded
form: hard-handed
form: hard handed
Etymology: From hard + handed, from the firmness of a strike with the hand or the hardness of calluses on a laborer's hands.
Senses: examples: text: 'Tis the cruel gripe, / That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts, / The hope of better things, the chance to win, / The wiſh to ſhine, the thirſt to be amus'd, / That at the found of Winter's hoary wing, / Unpeople all our counties, of ſuch herds, / Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, looſe, / And wanton vagrants, as make London, vaſt / And boundless as it is, a crowded coop.
ref: 1785, William Cowper, “The Garden”, in The Task, a Poem, in Six Books. By William Cowper … To which are Added, by the Same Author, An Epistle to Joseph Hill, Esq. Tirocinium, or a Review of Schools, and The History of John Gilpin, London: Printed for J[oseph] Johnson, No. 72 St. Paul's Church-Yard, OCLC 221351486; republished as The Task. A Poem. In Six Books. To which is Added, Tirocinium: or, A Review of Schools, new edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: Printed for Thomas Dobson, bookseller, in Second-street, second door above Chestnut-street, 1787, OCLC 23630717, page 87
text: To deliver out of that Egyptian bondage to Wretchedness, and Ignorance, and Sin, the hardhanded millions
ref: 1869, Thomas Carlyle, Thomas Carlyle's Collected works, volume 9, page 207:
text: Martin Van Buren—plain, republican, hardhanded-democratic-locofoco Martin Van Buren—has [the East Room] now garnished with gold framed mirrors 'as big as a barn door,'
ref: 2008, Ben Shapiro, Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House, page 4:
text: He's a hard man, hardhanded, hard-hearted, he doesn't strike me.
ref: 2011, Robin Hobb, Dragon Keeper: Volume One of the Rain Wilds Chronicles, page 409:
glosses: Forceful, excessive, draconian, or abusive.
examples: text: To deliver out of that Egyptian bondage to Wretchedness, and Ignorance, and Sin, the hardhanded millions, of whom this hardhanded, earnest witness, and writer, is here representative.
ref: 1864, Thomas Carlyle, Critical and miscellaneous essays, page 374:
text: One reason why Peter Quince and his actors make such a fine mess of the tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe is they are 'Hardhanded men that work in Athens here'.
ref: 2002, Alexander Leggatt, English Stage Comedy 1490-1990, →ISBN, page 23:
text: All experience proves that capital invariably secures the lion's share of the products and profits of hardhanded industry.
ref: 2003, Henry George, Kenneth C. Wenzer, Henry George: Collected Journalistic Writings - Volume 1, →ISBN, page 68:
glosses: Working-class; having hands hardened from labor.
Synonyms: sense: forceful or draconian
word: domineering
sense: forceful or draconian
word: harsh
sense: forceful or draconian
word: heavy-handed
sense: forceful or draconian
word: strict
sense: forceful or draconian
word: tyrannical
sense: with work-hardened hands
word: blue-collar
sense: with work-hardened hands
word: hardworking
sense: with work-hardened hands
word: working-class
sense: with work-hardened hands
word: workworn
Derived terms: hardhandedly
hardhandedness