fast-handed

English

Etymology

fast +‎ handed

Adjective

fast-handed (comparative more fast-handed, superlative most fast-handed)

1. With hands that move very quickly.
   • 2013, Andy Nash, A Year in the Life of Somerset County Cricket Club, →ISBN:

     I love the youthful brilliance of Jos Buttler, the chattering chutzpah of Craig Kieswetter, the studied leave of Nick Compton, the fast-handed strokeplay of James Hildreth, the tattoos of Peter Trego, the devotion to weight training of the trainer Daz Veness, even the goatee of chairman Andy Nash.

   • 2011, Patricia Gaffney, Crooked Hearts, →ISBN:

     She made a fast-handed dive and snatched the statue back, just as he was sliding it into his pocket.

   • 2008, Martin Charles Strong, Brendon Griffin, Lights, camera, sound tracks, →ISBN, page 487:

     A feast of slide and fast-handed guitar, with Johnson's falsetto ramblings a highlight, the song became a huge success in America, providing this new found blues hero with instant fortune and a mass following.

2. Highly efficient at improvisation.
   • 2015 January 26, Stuart Jeffries, “League of gentlemen: Kingsman and Britain's posh-boy spies”, in The Guardian:

     Hart is not just posh but well-versed in explaining things with fast-handed diplomacy to unpleasant Johnny Foreigners without loosening his Windsor knot, often deploying that go-to Brit spook gadget, the weaponised umbrella.

   • 2014, Samuel Bamford, Passages in the Life of a Radical, →ISBN, page 14:

     He seemed to have that kind of self-possession and ease about him, together with a certain bantering jollity, which are so natural to fast-handed and well-housed lords of the soil.

   • 2002, Iain Sinclair, Landor's Tower: Or the Imaginary Conversations, →ISBN, page 290:

     It was time for Amber Lights to be studied from a post-feminist perspective — which would demonstrate, conclusively, that most of the credit should go to the editor, a fast-handed woman who had been left to improvise, during the period when Lalage was 'off colour'.

3. Sexually aggressive.
   • 2013, Deidre Knight, Parallel Attraction, →ISBN:

     "La Bashta?" she repeated, almost getting the word right. He groaned, leaning back into the pillows, smiling. "No good . . . translation," he managed, then flipped her onto her back. The words meant roughly "hot-blooded, fast-handed woman.

   • 2009, Fort Press, One Second After:

     How she could stand up her kid sister on her birthday to sneak off with that pimple faced, horny, fast-handed Johnson kid .

   • 1998, Nora Roberts, Sea Swept, →ISBN:

     Losing his virginity to pretty, fast-handed Allyson at fifteen was a sweaty and delightful experience.

4. (obsolete) Greedy, miserly.
   • 1622, Francis Bacon, History of King Henry VII:

     The king also being fast-handed, and loath to part With a second dowry, but chiefly being affectionate both by his nature, and out of politic considerations to continue the alliance with Spain, prevailed with the prince, though not without some reluctation, such as could be in those years, for he was not twelve years of age, to be contracted with the Princess Catharine.

   • 1859, George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:

     Sir Austin Feverel, a thorough good Tory, was no game-preserver, and could be popular whenever he chose, which Sir Males Papworth, on the other side of the river,a fast-handed Whig and terror to poachers, never could be.

   • 1903, Lady Anne Blunt, Wukfrid Scawen Blunt, The Seven Golden Odes of Pagan Arabia, page 14:

     He takes all, the free-givers, ay, and the rogues close-fisted, the fast-handed gold-hiders.

Anagrams

• handfasted