left-handed
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See also: lefthanded
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English left handyd, lyfthonded, equivalent to left + handed.
Adjective[edit]
left-handed (not comparable)
- Using one's left hand in preference to, or more skillfully than, one's right.
- Intended to be worn on, or used by, the left hand.
- Turning or spiraling from right to left; anticlockwise.
- Awkward or maladroit.
- Insincere or malicious.
- 1824, Walter Savage Landor, “Aeschines and Phocion”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume I, London: […] Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC:
- The commendations of this people are not always […] left-handed and detractive.
- (occult, of magic) Performed with the intention of doing harm or in transgression against convention or taboo; following the left-hand path
- 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 23:
- On the other hand, nearly all magic tends in time to the left-handed path; as being a devious means of attaining desires unobtainable by ordinary methods.
- Of a coordinate system: not following the right-hand rule.
Synonyms[edit]
Noun[edit]
- Left-handed people, taken as a whole.
- 1992, Antonio E. Puente, Robert J. McCaffrey, Handbook of Neuropsychological Assessment, →ISBN, page 147:
- Evidence contradicting this principle came from a study of epileptic patients by Penfield and Roberts (1959) who found that dysphasia following surgery on the right hemisphere was not significantly more frequent in the left-handed than in the right-handed.
Synonyms[edit]
Antonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
preferring the left hand over the right
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