one-handedness
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: From one-handed + -ness.
Base: one-handed
Affixes: -ness
Inflected forms:
form: onehandedness
pos: noun
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: The quality of having a dominant hand; left-handedness or right-handedness.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Again some persons are too right-handed (I question, indeed, whether one-handedness, whether right or left be chiefly employed, does not in all cases involve a loss of power).
gloss: Chirality
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: It must be noted that the stimulating hypotheses of Cairns-Smith (1982) emphasizing the role of clays in the origin of life do not account for the crucial one-handedness of biopolymers required to ensure the survival of self-replicating organic systems.
gloss: The possession of only one hand or the ability to use only one hand; the loss of the use of one hand.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: The young man had married a woman who had only one hand, and it was on the fact of her one-handedness that my thought was focused.
Phenomenologically speaking, such differences are immediately incorportated into the lived body by being endowed with meaning in the context of one's everyday activities. Thus one-handedness can be lived, for example, as difficulty with pouring water into a jug, blindness--as exclusion from social interaction, and deafness -- as peaceful silence in the midst of a noisy journey.
gloss: The state of choosing to use only one hand.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: A later generation of bebop pianists would often be accused of one-handedness; their right hands flew along with melodies and improvisations, while their "weak" left hands just plonked chords.
One-handedness is essential for training to great skill in balanced action with any sensible design of weapon, as in fencing, but more especially when fighting from behind a tree or when being prepared to run if overcome (except possibly with bows and arrows where the defense handedness is reversed.)
Bond's production of the One-Handed Cigarette Roll has passed unattended — Mendez refuses to acknowledge the one-handedness simply to thwart Bond, whose cigarette rolling he believes to originate more from histrionic impulse than economic necessity.
gloss: The quality of being designed for only one hand.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: As can be witnessed in a performance of that work by Fleisher, it is indeed a dazzling display piece in which, if it is only heard and not seen, its one-handedness might evade listeners' notice.
gloss: A state in which only one person is active
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Holding intercourse with Sir William at this date partook a good deal of the nature of a one-handed conversation, and the one-handedness seemed to increase when the only share of the host, in the post-prandial conviviality, consisted in passing the decanters, which Sir William was scrupulous to do.
gloss: Weakness, limitation
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
uncountable
examples: Mr. Herbert makes his moan over the awful one-handedness and one-leggedness of our rich classes, who are smitten with the universal incapacity to help theniselves.
Translations: