Word: light-handed Part of Speech: adj Etymology: From Middle English lyghte handyd, from light (adjective) + honded, participle of honden (“to seize, take charge of”), from the noun hond (“hand”). See more at hand. 1. Gentle; benign and with minimal intervention. Example: Does it reflect your position toward the other agencies that, in the words of your Deputy, this program should be as lighthanded as possible? Example: On the other hand, lighthanded methods are believed to have more subtle effects on behaviors, often through influencing attitudes, creating knowledge, or manipulating the environment to accomplish desirable ends. 2. Sparing; applying only slight pressure or minimal amounts. Example: The shadow was now also applied to the lower lash line, but still very light-handed. Example: Kate's light-handed copyedit is shown in figure 1, along with a medium and heavy copyediting of the same passage. 3. Delicate and skilled; nimble and dextrous Example: Winterbourne constantly attended for news from the sick-room, which reached him, however, but with worrying indirectness, though he once had speech, for a moment, of the poor girl's physician and once saw Mrs Miller, who, sharply alarmed, struck him as thereby more happily inspired than he could have conceived and indeed as the most noiseless and lighthanded of nurses. Example: The early works of this painter are a complete study for lighthanded and beautiful execution; they look imitatively perfect, yet many instances are known of his extreme rapidity of execution. 4. Light-hearted; fun and witty or easygoing. Example: 1981-1982, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure We make several light-handed or joking references to my change. Example: Both were extensively-travelled cosmopolitans, popular and at home in salons across the world; good talkers (Yazid often to excess) with perfect command of English, a light-handed sense of humour and easy-going manners. 5. Flippant; lacking seriousness. Example: Philip Penna, of Indiana, a veteran of many labor controversies, roundly scored the United Mine Workers for their light-handed treatment of their contracts. 6. Not having a full complement of workers. Example: “We will hold on to the last, while he must begin to take in soon, or the squall will come upon him too fast for a light-handed vessel.” Example: If light-handed, or the wind fresh, let go the bowline and ease off the tack, (being careful to let the bowline go before the tack,) and haul up the weather clew. 7. Thieving, larcenous. Example: Thae Hielandmen are o' the westland clans, and just as light-handed as their neighbours, an a' tales be true Example: Indeed, she knew how to make young Deelbelicket, old Dougald Baresword, the Laird of Bandybrawl, and others, pay for the hospitality which she did not think proper to deny them, by rendering them useful in her negociations with the light-handed lads beyond the Cairn, who, finding their late object of plunder was allied to "kend folks, and owned by them at kirk and market," became satisfied, on a moderate yearly composition, to desist from their depredations. 8. Fresh and light-tasting, not rich, heavy, or highly seasoned. Example: Lively, fresh-tasting, and light-handed in style, it pairs well with any food that likes a dry white with a bit of fruit to it, from chips 'n' dips, shrimp cocktail, and pates to entree salads and poultry. Example: It's a sweet little bistro, a local favorite, turning out bright, lovely French/Mediterranean-influenced dishes like sautéed escargot in a Roquefort gratiné, and light-handed scallops with pea shoots and bowfin caviar. 9. Having or requiring little strength. Labels: obsolete Example: December. Month for sheep-shearing. Rather light-handed for this work. Example: ...are such as the cotton, woolen, and shoe factories, wherein the use of machinery has made mere human tenders of the operatives employed; or in such industries as the making of garments, wherein light-handed and comparatively unskilled labor, such as that of women and children, embodies the very worst features of an utterly selfish competition, and leaves the worker almost entirely at the mercy of "sweaters" and "middle-men."