emptyhandedness

See also: empty-handedness

English

Alternative forms

• empty-handedness

Etymology

emptyhanded +‎ -ness

Noun

emptyhandedness (uncountable)

1. The state of having nothing in one's hands.
   • 1962, Bolingbroke society, Drama Survey - Volume 2, page 202:

     Mr. Basehart offers it again, "Here, cousin," and dances away again, leaving Bolingbroke accused by his own emptyhandedness.

2. Poverty or lack of possessions and resources.
   • 1912, T. A. Venkasawmy Row, The Indian Decisions (Old Series): Being a Verbatim Reprint of the Reports of Cases Decided by the Late Suprmem Courts and the Sudder Dewanny Adawluts in India, Volume 3, page 194:

     Now on account of my emptyhandedness and want of means, I am unable to provide for the law charges and remuneration of attorneys and counsel and such matters and without appointing a protector over me, it is impossible to meet the costs and charges of the suits, and of the attorneys and counsel an my personal expense, and rent of the house which I now occupy, and the wages of servants &c.

3. Lack of anything to offer
   • 1896, Third Biennial, General Federation of Women's Clubs, page 278:

     Oh, the beauty and heavenliness of a home where the empty-handed guest is not the less but the more welcome for his emptyhandedness!

4. The lack of something one sought to acquire.
   • 1939, Social Work Today - Volumes 7-8:

     Talk with those here who vainly seek work, who suffer daily the humiliation of emptyhandedness.

5. Failure to accomplish a task or mission.
   • 2014, Nathan Miller, The U.S. Navy: A History, Third Edition, →ISBN, page 208:

     And the clanging call of the general alarm rasped you to battle stations, night and day, from sleep and from meals, always with the same emptyhandedness of failure in the end.

6. Lack of a weapon; the state of being unarmed.
   • 1982, Stanley Elkin, George Mills: a novel, page 7:

     ...Mills had first spoken his gibberish of good intention, always careful, though they did not travel in armor, to lean down from their mounts to shake hands in the trendy new symbol of emptyhandedness and unarmedness that they'd picked up on their travels.