neat-handed

See also: neathanded

English

Alternative forms

• neathanded

Etymology

neat +‎ handed

Adjective

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

1. Dextrous; having the skill and discipline to do precision work neatly.
   • 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, p. 63,^[1]

     Lastly, you must learn to be diligent to perform whatsoever your Mistress commands you, to be neat in your habit, modest in your carriage, silent when she is angry, willing to please, quick and neat handed about what you have to do.

   • 1752, Christopher Smart, “L’Allegro” in Poems on Several Occasions, London: for the author, p. 186,^[2]

     Hard by a cottage chimney smokes,

     From betwixt two aged oaks,

     Where Corydon and Thyrsis met,

     Are at their savory dinner set

     Of herbs and other country messes,

     Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses;

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter 20,^[3]

     […] if I bid you do what you thought wrong, there would be no light-footed running, no neat-handed alacrity, no lively glance and animated complexion.

   • c. 1928 Rudyard Kipling, article published in The Morning Post, in Andrew Lycett (ed.), Kipling Abroad: Traffics and Discoveries from Burma to Brazil, London: I.B. Tauris, 2010, p. 221,

     For one thing, they were racially neat-handed, as those are who deal in strong sunlight with wood, fibres, cane and rattan; and their fight against fever in the past had most practically taught them tidiness.

Derived terms

• neat-handedly
• neat-handedness