ambidexter
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Medieval Latin ambidexter, from ambi- + dexter.
Pronunciation [edit]
Noun [edit]
ambidexter (plural ambidexters)
- Someone who is ambidextrous.
- (obsolete, slang) A lawyer who takes fees from both plaintiff and defendant, or that goes snacks with both parties in gaming.
- (by extension) Someone who is two-faced; a double-dealer.
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York Review of Books 2001, p. 65:
- One takes upon him temperence, holiness [...], whenas indeed he, and he, and he, and the rest are hypocrites, ambidexters, outsides, so many turning pictures, a lion on one side, a lamb on the other.
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York Review of Books 2001, p. 65:
Adjective [edit]
ambidexter (not comparable)
- ambidextrous
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Smollett to this entry?)
