full-handed
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more full-handed
form: most full-handed
form: fullhanded
Etymology: From full + handed.
Senses: examples: text: He was not only carrying a candle to put the finishing touch to him as a target; he had dispensed with coat and waistcoat downstairs, and was at once full-handed and unarmed
ref: 2014, E. W. Hornung, Raffles: Further Adventures of the Amateur Cracksman, →ISBN:
text: By night we'll all be back at this spot, full-handed or empty-handed, as it may be, but full-handed, I hope.
ref: 1926, Joseph Alexander Altsheler, The Masters of the Peaks: A Story of the Great North Woods, →ISBN:
text: Had it so been, then for sure the robber had not got off full-handed or without a fight for it.
ref: 1898, Bram Stoker, Miss Betty:
glosses: Carrying something, especially something valuable, such as a gift.
examples: text: Mr. Beers came to the country full-handed, with a handsome competency to commence any business he might choose, independent of missionary patronage.
ref: 1870, William Henry Gray, A History of Oregon, 1792-1849 Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic Information, →ISBN:
text: Lady Anna has given away half her money, and may give away the whole if she pleases. She will be the same to me whether she comes full-handed or empty. But when she is my wife her property shall be my property,—and when I die there shall be no such abomination as an eldest son.
ref: 1871 (date written), Anthony Trollope, “The Lawyers agree”, in Lady Anna. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1874, →OCLC, page 277:
text: ...the defendant had been, all the time, since the date of the note sued on, full-handed, in easy circumstances, and able to pay all his debts.
ref: 1904, Reports of Selected Civil and Criminal Cases Decided in the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, Volume 51:
glosses: Wealthy, having all that is needed.
examples: text: Have we not the theatre, its triumphs, and full-handed thunders of applause?
ref: 1852, Charles Reade, Tom Taylor, Masks and Faces (play):
text: Which cast it, that large infidel Your Omar; and your Omar drew Full-handed plaudits from our best
ref: 1882, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Tiresias and Other Poems (dedication to Edward FitzGerald):
text: The welcome extended by our brother society to those of our Society who were present exceeded in cordiality and completeness the expectations of those who knew that there would be a warm and full-handed reception, and nothing was lacking in the perfection of arrangements for the meetings and for the comfort and pleasure of our members and their ladies.
ref: 1911, Journal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers:
text: By every vessel he wrote; he wrote as he gave and as he loved, in full-handed, full-hearted plenitude.
ref: 1853, Charlotte Bronte, Villette:
glosses: Enthusiastic and generous.
examples: text: A spit on the palm and a full-handed slap was a deal but if only fingertips slapped then the bargaining would continue.
ref: 2015, Soraya, The Wooden Rose, →ISBN:
text: As they passed Shack he reached out and gave Helen a massive, full-handed pinch on the buttock and winked at me with relaxed, expansive good cheer.
ref: 2014, John D. MacDonald, The End of the Night, →ISBN:
text: Genie swung a full-handed slap that sent the gaudily dressed cop staggering back.
ref: 1964, Keith Laumer, The Great Time Machine Hoax:
text: The circular strokes on the joints; long, full-handed strokes over the long bones
ref: 2012, John Douillard, The Encyclopedia of Ayurvedic Massage, →ISBN, page 112:
text: Then Manuel touched the jangling, jarring little machette to a queer tune, and sang something in Portuguese about "Nina, innocente!" ending with a full-handed sweep that brought the song up with a jerk.
ref: 1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous:
glosses: Using the palm of the hand or broad gestures.
examples: text: All that was about what you should do in a full-handed hold 'em game when you're the small blind versus a big blind. But, suppose instead that the game is two-handed from the get go.
ref: 2007, Mike Caro, Caro's Most Profitable Hold'em Advice, →ISBN:
text: The switches go in either direction around the triangle, and a player may find himself playing as many as three positions in a full-handed game.
ref: 1984, Marvin J. Fine, Systematic Intervention with Disturbed Children, →ISBN:
text: So in the first hour of my lone voyage I had proof that the Spray could at least do better than this full-handed steamship, for I was already farther on my voyage than she.
ref: 1900, Joshua Slocum, Sailing Alone Around the World:
glosses: Having people that fill all positions.
examples: text: He regarded his younger brother as a “full-handed man of practice” and himself merely “a supported theorist.”
ref: 2014, Charles S. Bryan, Asylum Doctor: James Woods Babcock and the Red Plague of Pellagra, →ISBN:
text: It was a new and sorry sight for our full-handed American farming men to see those poor, hard Asiatic hands trying, by main strength, to break the tough straw or pull it by the roots.
ref: 2013, Clara Barton, A Story of the Red Cross, →ISBN:
text: She had, after all, learned from the same master he had although matched daggers offered no reach compared to a full-handed sword.
ref: 2014, Robert Stanek, In the Service of Dragons Boxed Set, →ISBN:
text: It seems to be a full-handed failure. The bankrupts must have a good deal of the values remaining in their hands.
ref: 1908, American bankruptcy reports - Volume 18, page 205:
glosses: Complete; fully qualified or fully equipped.
Derived terms: full-handedly
full-handedness