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Left-handed   Listen
adjective
Left-handed  adj.  
1.
Having the left hand or arm stronger and more dexterous than the right; using the left hand and arm with more dexterity than the right.
2.
Clumsy; awkward; unlucky; insincere; sinister; malicious; as, a left-handed compliment. "The commendations of this people are not always left-handed and detractive."
3.
Having a direction contrary to that of the hands of a watch when seen in front; said of a twist, a rotary motion, etc., looked at from a given direction.
Left-handed marriage, a morganatic marriage. See Morganatic.
Left-handed screw, a screw constructed to advance away from the observer, when turned, as in a nut, with a left-handed rotation. An ordinary wood screw is right-handed.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Left-handed" Quotes from Famous Books



... he had given the Banner of the red-jawed Wolf to Stone-wolf, a huge and dreadful warrior some forty winters old, who had fought in the Great Overthrow, and now hewed down the Dusky Men, wielding a heavy short-sword left-handed. But Wood-wise himself fought with a great sword, giving great strokes to the right hand and the left, and was no more hasty than is the ...
— The Roots of the Mountains • William Morris

... seen.' If from poor Bowen's loss, you think it proper to oblige me, I rest confident you will do it. The boy is under obligations to me, but he repaid me by bringing me from the mole of Santa Cruz. I hope you will be able to give me a frigate to convey the remains of my carcass to England." "A left-handed admiral," he said in a subsequent letter, "will never again be considered as useful; therefore the sooner I get to a very humble cottage the better, and make room for a sounder man to serve the state." His first letter to Lady Nelson was written under the same ...
— The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson • Robert Southey

... having reached the ears of one so lovely. Oh, how Vernon longed to hurl his pillow, or even any harder missile within his reach, at the saucy little fellow's head who was looking so provokingly pleased with his distress, and which the presence of the squire alone restrained him from making a left-handed attempt at, for his right was, as we before mentioned, disabled for the present by his late accident. But Vernon was too good a judge to attempt any thing of the kind, or show any exhibition of displeasure before his kind entertainer who, telling him he must act as his doctor, having, as he said, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 364, February 1846 • Various

... there is no evidence that such malpractices were widespread. The appendices to the Lotus[307] show that the worship of a many-named goddess, invoked as a defender of the faith, was beginning to be a recognized feature of Buddhism. But they contain no indications of left-handed Tantrism and the best proof that it did not become prevalent until much later is afforded by the narratives of the three Chinese pilgrims who all describe the condition of religion in India and notice anything which they thought singular ...
— Hinduism And Buddhism, Volume II. (of 3) - An Historical Sketch • Charles Eliot

... Rope, which is composed of three right-handed hawser-laid ropes laid up together left-handed, so that it may be said to consist of nine strands (Fig. 3), or it may be formed by three left-handed ropes laid up right-handed ...
— Knots, Bends, Splices - With tables of strengths of ropes, etc. and wire rigging • J. Netherclift Jutsum

... me," said Dick, walking off in another direction with Aspinall, "how Raggles and Culver play tennis at all; any fool could lick them left-handed." ...
— Follow My leader - The Boys of Templeton • Talbot Baines Reed

... appear in succession. Specimens of quartz have been found which require the analyzer to be turned from left to right to obtain the same succession of colours. Crystals of the first class are therefore called right-handed, and of the second class, left-handed crystals. ...
— Six Lectures on Light - Delivered In The United States In 1872-1873 • John Tyndall

... lapel of his morning coat showed signs of use was duly noted. What Parkinson saw he recorded, but he made no deductions. A handkerchief carried in the cuff of the right sleeve was simply that to him and not an indication that Mr. Carlyle was, indeed, left-handed. ...
— Four Max Carrados Detective Stories • Ernest Bramah

... so much more dangerous, than mere perfection of feature and proportion?—Good Heavens! What a destiny, too, for such a personality! The mother dying; the father long since lost in the dreary throng of forgotten failures; not a relation in the world who could possibly acknowledge her left-handed relationship to one of the most powerful families in Europe:—what was left her but the veil? Instinctively he perceived that she must be intended for this. And yet, to put that creature into a convent! Set the Venus de Milo in a cathedral crypt!—What sort of nun would she make, this child ...
— The Genius • Margaret Horton Potter

... exalted." Ah, my friends, it is much easier, and needs much less knowledge of God, and much less of the likeness of Christ, to see what is wrong, than to see what is right. Every man knows when a bone is broken, but it is not every one who can set it again. Nevertheless, there is a sort of left-handed reason in that argument. For a man has no more right to make himself out worse than he is, than he has to make himself out better than he is. A man should confess to being just what he is, neither ...
— Sermons on National Subjects • Charles Kingsley

... done? A left-handed boy is all right in the world. Your wife has twins—then think of the woman, the one ewe lamb of 'the poor wanton.' If you do not tell her, you will have her here making a noise, as you say. I wonder she has not been here ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... that we don't look for," concluded John Massingbird, smoking on as serenely as though he had come into an estate, instead of having lost one. "There'll be bonfires all over the place to-night, Lionel—left-handed compliment to me. Here comes Luke Roy. I told him to be here this morning. What nuts this will be for old Roy to crack! He has been fit to stick me, ever since I refused him the management of ...
— Verner's Pride • Mrs. Henry Wood

... between Jackson, Clay, and Crawford was wonderful. They were equally passionate, equally impetuous, and equally impatient—all being natural men of great powers and limited education. To say they were self-made, would be paying the Almighty a left-handed compliment. But to say they assiduously cultivated His great gifts without much aid from the schoolmaster, would only be doing them ...
— The Memories of Fifty Years • William H. Sparks

... carelessly, as if they didn't really matter. His own fifth card made no difference—his jacks already had a busted flush beaten. His smile was just a little too sharp as he tossed me my last card face up and reached for the pot with the same left-handed gesture. ...
— Card Trick • Walter Bupp AKA Randall Garrett

... left-handed; and your left eye is on the same side as your left hand. Now, I suppose, you can find the left eye of the skull, or the place where the left eye has been. Have ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 1 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... writers do not cultivate a little more personal experience. No Englishman says "in guard" for "on guard." "Colpo del Tancredi" is not"Tancred's lunge" but "the thrust of the (master) Tancredi:" it is quite permissible and to say that it loses half its dangers against a left-handed man is to state what cannot be the fact as long as the heart is more easily reached from the left than from ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton

... high-minded, have certain attributes of respect among those beneath them, so that they might justly be content with the lowest reward in whatever calling they professed, the least skilful and most left-handed being compensated for the mental anguish which they must undoubtedly suffer by receiving the greatest number ...
— The Wallet of Kai Lung • Ernest Bramah

... childish disorder which threw her system out of balance. There are hundreds of such cases in medical literature. She was 'possessed,' as of old, with a sort of devilish 'secondary personality.' She probably wrote treatises left-handed and upside-down. They often begin that way. The mother, lately bereaved, was convinced of her daughter's occult powers. She nursed the delusion, formed a circle, sat in the darkness, petting the girl when things happened, mourning when the walls were silent—and there ...
— The Tyranny of the Dark • Hamlin Garland

... are dozens of different sugars, so much alike that they are difficult to separate. They are all composed of the same three elements, C, H and O, and often in the same proportion. Sometimes two sugars differ only in that one has a right-handed and the other a left-handed twist to its molecule. They bear the same resemblance to one another as the two gloves of a pair. Cane sugar and beet sugar are when completely purified the same substance, that is, sucrose, C{12}H{22}O{11}. The brown and straw-colored ...
— Creative Chemistry - Descriptive of Recent Achievements in the Chemical Industries • Edwin E. Slosson

... enough like this. I suppose I must grin and bear it. Here, I've tried straightforward striddling like one would on a donkey, but this beast don't seem to have no shape in him. Then I've tried like a lady, sitting left-handed with my legs, and then after I've got tired that way for a bit, and it don't work comfortable, I've tried right-handed with my legs. But it's no good. Bit ago I saw one of these niggers shut his legs up like a ...
— In the Mahdi's Grasp • George Manville Fenn

... rumor that the father had a left-handed kinship with the Brutons, a family of great note in the public annals of the State. He certainly showed qualities which tended to confirm this tradition, and abilities which entitled him to be considered the peer ...
— Bricks Without Straw • Albion W. Tourgee

... work of peeling, I have found what seems to be a good way of doing it. Hold the bulblet firmly between the thumb and fingers of the left hand—unless you are left-handed—with the top upward. Then with the thumb nail and first finger of the right hand take tight hold of the point of the shell, and pull to the right, as if husking an ear of corn. This will usually strip off a piece of the covering, leaving a part of ...
— The Gladiolus - A Practical Treatise on the Culture of the Gladiolus (2nd Edition) • Matthew Crawford

... possible explanation of one of the peculiarities of my plaster cast. The long nail on the left little finger may have served its function at the gaming table. If so, however, it would seem to indicate that our man is left-handed, while, as we have already seen, the writing upon the library slips would indicate that he is ambidextrous. We need not, therefore, I reasoned, be surprised if we find that both little fingers have long nails. I at ...
— The Darrow Enigma • Melvin L. Severy

... day, though, simply a crime to stay indoors. Will you chance left-handed driving and come for ...
— Juggernaut • Alice Campbell

... breakfast fought again as a gladiator. The form of fighting which he practiced and the armor which he used was that pertaining to the so-called secutor: in his right hand he held the shield and in his left the wooden sword. He prided himself very greatly upon being left-handed. His antagonist would be some professional athlete, or, perhaps, gladiator, with a cane; this was sometimes a man that the emperor himself challenged and sometimes one that the people chose. In this and ...
— Dio's Rome, Volume V., Books 61-76 (A.D. 54-211) • Cassius Dio

... an infant—for duties to her well—regulated mind were always pleasures, and babies, like tough steaks, or the modern Greek olive trees, are invariably the better for beating—but, poor woman! she had the misfortune to be left-handed, and a child flogged left-handedly had better be left unflogged. The world revolves from right to left. It will not do to whip a baby from left to right. If each blow in the proper direction drives an evil propensity out, it follows that every thump in an opposite one knocks its quota of ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 5 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... reports of the committees and the votes of the meetings false coin, nowhere current in the kingdom of God, circulate as they may in this realm of earth? Nay, does not everybody, save the one that receives the somewhat insincere and left-handed blessing, read the formal and solemn record with a disposition to ridicule ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, No. 74, December, 1863 • Various

... occasionally of extraordinary interest," said he. "Nothing has more individuality, save perhaps watches and bootlaces. The indications here, however, are neither very marked nor very important. The owner is obviously a muscular man, left-handed, with an excellent set of teeth, careless in his habits, and with no ...
— Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

... My Early Years Born 1808 Mary Peterkin The brilliant red poppies Left-handed Patrick's birthday Vocal performance A wonderful escape Events of the war The French prisoners Entry of the 42d into Edinburgh Bleaching "claes" on the Calton The Greenside workshops The chimes of St. Giles' The Edinburgh Market The caddies The fishwives The "floore" Traditional fondness ...
— James Nasmyth's Autobiography • James Nasmyth

... uncle of mine; one of those uneasy spirits that cannot rest quietly in their beds in the morning, but must be up early, to bother the household. He was only a kind of half-uncle, after all, for he had married my father's sister; yet be assumed great authority on the strength of this left-handed relationship, and was a universal intermeddler and family pest. This prying little busybody soon ferreted out the truth of the story, and discovered, by hook and by crook, that I was at the bottom of the affair, and had locked up the donkey in the smoke-house. ...
— The Crayon Papers • Washington Irving

... the ownership of the Malmaison estates, which Richard Pennroyal claimed, in the alleged failure of any legitimate heir of Sir John Malmaison, deceased—the father of Sir Clarence—but, as Pennroyal alleged, by a left-handed marriage. I have not gone into the details of this case, and should not detain the reader over it if I had; he may, if it pleases him, read it at full length elsewhere. It is enough to observe that Pennroyal ...
— Archibald Malmaison • Julian Hawthorne

... 'The only chance now is that Romany can't fight after all. If you'd waited a minute I'd have been at him.' We were a bit behind the rest, and Jack started giving me points about lefts and rights, and 'half-arms', and that sort of thing. 'He's left-handed, and that's the worst of it,' said Jack. 'You must only make as good a show as you can, and one of us will take ...
— Joe Wilson and His Mates • Henry Lawson

... of his lovely prisoner, but so accustomed to going about in his shirt-sleeves that he suffered acutely in the confinement of his heavy coat. Nevertheless, in spite of his discomfort, he was very considerate in a left-handed way, and did his best to conceal the official relationship between himself and his wards. He not only sat behind them all the way, but he made no attempt at conversation, and for these favors Helen was genuinely grateful. Only as they neared the station ...
— They of the High Trails • Hamlin Garland

... elegant chambers, with secluded gardens and fountains, that had once been occupied by the beautiful Elizabeth of Farnese, daughter of the Duke of Parma, and more than four centuries ago by a Moorish beauty named Lindaraxa, who flourished in the court of Muhamed the Left-Handed. These solitary and ruined chambers had their own terrors and enchantments, and for the first nights gave the author little but sinister suggestions and grotesque food for his imagination. But familiarity dispersed the gloom and the ...
— Washington Irving • Charles Dudley Warner

... expedition, with many a promise that the music should be sweet, departed hilariously: Will Burdock, the left-handed cricketer and hard-hitter, being leader; with Peter Bartholomew, potboy, John Girling, miller's man, and Ned Thewk, gardener's assistant, for lieutenants. On the march, silence was proclaimed, and partially enforced, ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... forgotten, with our perennial metal shortages. Then I started picking my way through it, my portable audiovisual camera slung over my shoulder and a flashlight in my hand. My left hand, of course; it's never smart to carry a light in your right, unless you're left-handed. ...
— Four-Day Planet • Henry Beam Piper

... a neighbor told us that he had his clothes turned after a season or two of wear, but we neglected to ask him how he shifted the buttonholes to the proper side. Left-handed buttoning would be rather awkward, especially if one were ...
— The So-called Human Race • Bert Leston Taylor

... the vigour and skill into his next efforts, he paid no heed whatever to the blows given him by one of the lads, but pressed the other heavily, following him up, and at last, when he felt nearly done, aiming a tremendous left-handed ...
— The Weathercock - Being the Adventures of a Boy with a Bias • George Manville Fenn

... deformity are scarce, nor did we ever see one of them left-handed. They are, indeed, nearly ambidexter; but the sword, the spear and the fish-gig are always used with the right hand. Their muscular force is not great; but the pliancy of their limbs renders them very active. "Give to civilized man all his machines, and he is superior to the ...
— A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson • Watkin Tench

... are an ass, a twirepipe, A Jeffery John Bo-peep! Thou minister? Thou mend a left-handed pack-saddle? Out! puppy! My Friend, Frank, but a very foolish fellow. Dost thou see that bottle? ...
— History of English Humour, Vol. 1 (of 2) - With an Introduction upon Ancient Humour • Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange

... his guard. He was all wary caution, and had clearly no intention of throwing away a chance, but was evidently waiting for Martin to commence. Martin once or twice made play, but Randall was not skittishly inclined, all was "war hawk." Randall made a left-handed hit to draw his adversary, but found it would not do. Martin then hit right and left, but was stopped. Randall was feeling for Martin's wind, but hit above his mark, though not without leaving one of a red colour, which told "a flattering tale." Randall returned ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan

... I asked the question assured me that there had been no repairs, such as replacing panes of glass. When I leaned out of the window, I saw the scars in the cement. Perfectly obvious. An active man, a strong man, probably a left-handed man, threw a string with a stone at the end over Miller's Folly. With this string he drew over the building a stronger twine. Finally he drew over the top of the building a strong rope, like a wash line, or something ...
— Death Points a Finger • Will Levinrew

... to thee, friend of my youth, Pilgrim who seekest the Fountain of Truth, Hail and farewell to thy innocent pranks, No more can I send thee for left-handed cranks. Farewell, and a tear laves the ink on my pen, For ne'er shall I 'noint ...
— A Certain Rich Man • William Allen White

... comprehendeth and fasteneth all virtues together. And as it is elegantly said by Menander of vain love, which is but a false imitation of divine love, Amor melior Sophista loevo ad humanam vitam—that love teacheth a man to carry himself better than the sophist or preceptor; which he calleth left-handed, because, with all his rules and preceptions, he cannot form a man so dexterously, nor with that facility to prize himself and govern himself, as love can do: so certainly, if a man's mind be truly inflamed with charity, it doth work him suddenly ...
— The Advancement of Learning • Francis Bacon

... think, Maurice, that you might not have witnessed this sunset but for a bit of fencing trickery. What a turn that picture of Inez gave me! I knew him in a second—and like the ass I was, I told him so. And to meet him here, almost a left-handed king; no wonder ...
— The Puppet Crown • Harold MacGrath

... Benjamite" ("Dodd" was left-handed, and the old gentleman was well posted in Bible lore), "bring ...
— The Evolution of Dodd • William Hawley Smith

... of the lips, tongue, and jaw in the production of articulate speech. The simple musical instrument in the production of phonation is bilaterally represented in the brain, but as a speaking instrument it is unilaterally represented in right-handed individuals in the left hemisphere and in left-handed individuals in the right hemisphere. The reason for this we shall consider later; but ...
— The Brain and the Voice in Speech and Song • F. W. Mott

... yet unimpaired, and by a series of questions they had found out that she wanted to see Roger—and Roger's wife—before she died. Nor was this enough, for the proud, afflicted old creature, when their ingenuity had failed, traced left-handed upon a slate, with infinite effort, my initials: evidently she wanted to make her peace in this world before ...
— Margarita's Soul - The Romantic Recollections of a Man of Fifty • Ingraham Lovell

... numbers of dial-faced barometers run from left to right: this is a peculiarity dependent upon the left to right system of writing. A servant offers you dishes from the left side: you can't so readily help yourself from the right, unless left-handed. Schopenhauer despaired of the German race, because it could never be taught like the English to keep to the right side of the pavement in walking. A sword is worn at the left hip: a handkerchief is carried in the right pocket, if at the side; in the ...
— Falling in Love - With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science • Grant Allen

... are told by Sir G. Birdwood that the right handed Svastika signifies the Male Principle, the Sun on its daily journey from East to West, Light and Life; and that the left-handed Svastika signifies the Female Principle, the Sun in Hades or the Underworld on its journey from West ...
— The Non-Christian Cross - An Enquiry Into the Origin and History of the Symbol Eventually Adopted as That of Our Religion • John Denham Parsons

... difficult nature. The length of the throw to first, and the short time given him in which to make it, occasion many wild throws, and if he fumbles the ball at all, the opportunity is lost. Fleet runners who hit left-handed, and others who merely "bunt" the ball, can be caught only by the quickest and cleanest work; so that, everything considered, it is not surprising to find the third baseman generally at the foot ...
— Base-Ball - How to Become a Player • John M. Ward

... but always go round it, which is quite contrary to the Custom of the English, and other Europeans. {Cut with a Knife how. A Knife of Reed.} When they cut with a Knife, the Edge is towards them, whereas we always cut and whittle from us. {Not left-handed.} Nor did I ever see one of them left-handed. {Get Fire how.} Before the Christians came amongst them, not knowing the Use of Steel and Flints, they got their Fire with Sticks, which by vehement Collision, ...
— A New Voyage to Carolina • John Lawson

... very left-handed compliment," said the Daughter of the House. "You are always decrying inventions, which is strange. How would you like to sail a ...
— John Gayther's Garden and the Stories Told Therein • Frank R. Stockton

... woman is unattainable, because she has been far too carefully reared"—and here he frenziedly thought of that terrible matron whom, as you know, he had irreverently likened to a crocodile—"either to marry a pauper or to be contented with a left-handed alliance. And I love her. And so"—he shrugged—"there is positively nothing left to do save sit upon the ground and tell sad stories ...
— The Certain Hour • James Branch Cabell

... her dull eyes, broad mouth and left-handed style of footwork in the two-step, went to the dances with Anna McCarty and her "fellow." Anna and Maggie worked side by side in the factory, and were the greatest chums ever. So Anna always made Jimmy Burns take her by Maggie's house every Saturday night so that her friend could go ...
— The Four Million • O. Henry

... to have eyes in their heads, didn't see half that really took place, and saw a-plenty that did not. Most of 'em would have hung the man who snatched my hat. Only one, I remember, noticed that I was shot by a left-handed man. Then the little girl told us what really had occurred, every detail, just as though she had planned it instead of being ...
— The Million-Dollar Suitcase • Alice MacGowan

... the first Philippine Commission had a sort of left-handed interest in the first municipal governments established in the ...
— The Philippines: Past and Present (vol. 1 of 2) • Dean C. Worcester

... inauspicious and ill-looking person, the ugliness of Anthony Foster considerably exceeded what Tressilian had anticipated. He was of middle stature, built strongly, but so clumsily as to border on deformity, and to give all his motions the ungainly awkwardness of a left-legged and left-handed man. His hair, in arranging which men at that time, as at present, were very nice and curious, instead of being carefully cleaned and disposed into short curls, or else set up on end, as is represented in old ...
— Kenilworth • Sir Walter Scott

... night of it." At seven a wave went down the companion-way, and washed half the tea- things off the table, and before I fell asleep, the mate put his head through the curtain to say, "It's a rough night, ladies, but there's no danger"; a left-handed way of giving courage, which of course frightened the timid. About eleven I was awoke by confused cries, and in my dawning consciousness everything seemed going to pieces. The curtain was undrawn, and I could see the hall continually swept ...
— The Englishwoman in America • Isabella Lucy Bird

... hither. That Emperor of Austria has been entirely too lucky in war to please the King of France; and Max Emmanuel, whom we had expected to win over to our side, is the commander-in-chief of the imperial armies. Max—your quasi brother-in-law, Strozzi; for doubtless you are aware that Lucretia, the left-handed electress, is the first person in importance at the ...
— Prince Eugene and His Times • L. Muhlbach

... cattle. On my honest word, I reserved that very piece of flesh for the Lord of Cancale, well knowing his disposition; for the good man is naturally overjoyed when he holds a good-sized handsome shoulder of mutton, instead of a left-handed racket, in one hand, with a good sharp carver in the other. God wot, how he belabours ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais

... offered to his successor in applying the same loyalty to conscience in the establishment of peace. We could not live together half slave and half free; shall we succeed better in trying a second left-handed marriage between democracy and another form of aristocracy, less gross, but not less uncongenial? They who before misled the country into a policy false and deadly to the very truth which was its life and strength, by the fear of abolitionism, are making ready ...
— The Writings of James Russell Lowell in Prose and Poetry, Volume V - Political Essays • James Russell Lowell

... I," replied the ready Nevers, as he edged up to Richard, and attempted to plant a blow by the side of his head, which was handsomely parried, and a left-handed rap lodged under the ...
— In School and Out - or, The Conquest of Richard Grant. • Oliver Optic

... bland way of ignoring such things as conventions and the human emotions. Casey cooked supper for Babe and the Little Woman, and washed the dishes, and wrung out cloths from hot vinegar and salt so that the Little Woman could bathe her knee—she had to do it left-handed, at that—and unbuttoned Babe's clothes and helped her on with her pyjamas and let her kneel on his lap while she said her prayers. Because, as Babe painstakingly explained, she always kneeled on a lap so ants couldn't run over her toes and tickle ...
— Casey Ryan • B. M. Bower

... necessary for Cortez and his followers to paint the character of the Aztecs in darkest hues to palliate and excuse, in a measure, their own wholesale rapine and murder. It was the elder Dumas who said, "Truth is liable to be left-handed in history." As Cortez was a champion of the Roman Catholic Church, that institution did not hesitate to represent his achievements so as to redound to its own glory. "Posterity is too often deceived by the vague hyperboles of poets and rhetoricians," says Macaulay, "who ...
— Aztec Land • Maturin M. Ballou

... laggards. Government under him was a throbbing human purpose. He succeeded, where Taft failed, in preventing that drought of invention which officialism brings. Many people say he has tried to be all things to all men—that his speeches are an attempt to corral all sorts of votes. That is a left-handed way of stating a truth. A more generous interpretation would be to say that he had tried to be inclusive, to attach a hundred sectional agitations to a national program. Crude: of course he was crude; he ...
— A Preface to Politics • Walter Lippmann

... estate, or imported hats, or somebody's home-made candy? Or maybe you mean startin' one of them Blue Goose novelty shops down in Greenwich Village. I'll tell you. Why not manufacture left-handed collar buttons for the ...
— The House of Torchy • Sewell Ford

... refuse to take it! Beryl must needs weigh in with, "But, my dear Blanche, she wouldn't offer you her left hand! It's the left forefinger that gets punished in needlework." "The principle is the same," I answered coldly. "And besides, some people are left-handed." Beryl has decent qualities, I know, and one doesn't want to find fault with anyone just now, but she was always like that—and ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, September 2nd, 1914 • Various

... fireplace, winding the clock. Then the murderer stole up behind him—the noise of the turning key must have covered his movements—and stabbed him. And you see, from the position of the dagger on the left side of the back, that the murderer must have been left-handed. That is all clear enough. What is not clear is how he got in, and how he got ...
— John Thorndyke's Cases • R. Austin Freeman

... went on to give me a repetition of his friendly warning about Paris. He hinted things for a while, until I asked him to say what he knew of you. Then he said he knew all about you; that you were an outcast, a left-handed member of his own family, ...
— The Beautiful Lady • Booth Tarkington

... how to parry the blows that were aimed at himself, and Cuff had begun the attack on the three preceding occasions, without ever allowing his enemy to strike, Figs now determined that he would commence the engagement by a charge on his own part; and accordingly, being a left-handed man, brought that arm into action, and hit out a couple of times with all his might—once at Mr. Cuff's left eye, and once ...
— Vanity Fair • William Makepeace Thackeray

... his fortune. You'd hardly remember him; he reminds me of his uncle, old Nicholas Treffry; the same slow way of speaking, with a hesitation, and a trick of repeating your name with everything he says; left-handed too, and the same slow twinkle in his eyes. He has a dark, short beard, and red-brown cheeks; is a little bald on the temples, and a bit grey, but hard as iron. He rides over nearly every day, attended by a black spaniel with a wonderful nose and a horror of petticoats. ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... you were sure to receive at his hands; but his general practice was to give both. Shane, in fact, was a good- humored fellow, well liked, and nobody's enemy but his own. Jemmy Tague was a quiet man, who could fight his corner, however, if necessary. Shane,was called Kittogue Shane, from being left-handed. Both were butchers, and both, we believe, alive ...
— The Ned M'Keown Stories - Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of - William Carleton, Volume Three • William Carleton

... the greater frequency of the primary curvature towards the right is associated with the more general use of the right hand and arm, although primary curvatures towards the left are not confined to left-handed persons. ...
— Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. • Alexander Miles

... the birth of "young Massa Davy," the Colonel married his present wife, that lady having full knowledge of his left-handed connection with Madam P——, and consenting that the "bond-woman" should remain on the plantation, as its mistress. The legitimate wife resided, during most of the year, in Charleston, and when at the homestead took little interest in domestic matters. On one of her visits to the plantation, ...
— Among the Pines - or, South in Secession Time • James R. Gilmore

... strap dynamometer a flexible band, sometimes carrying segments of wood blocks, is hung over a pulley rotated by the motor, the power of which is to be measured. If the pulley turns with left-handed rotation, the friction would carry the strap toward the left, unless the weight, Q, were greater than P. If the belt does not slip in either direction when the pulley rotates under it, then Q-P exactly measures the friction on the surface ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 415, December 15, 1883 • Various

... barely finished his gasped warning when Ruth again hurled herself forward upon Dixon with tapering fingers curved like talons as they sought his throat. Dixon swept her clutching hands aside with a desperate left-handed parry, then snatched wildly at the gleaming head-piece with ...
— Astounding Stories, May, 1931 • Various

... from. We want a word for the opposite of a compliment. Not that this is as great a defect as the lack of the word compliment would be in these smooth-spoken times, but still the want is felt, and the feeling is shown by such awkward expedients as the expression 'a left-handed compliment.' Then, besides, they might give the seal of legitimacy to a fine lot of words and phrases, the need of which is shown by their being spontaneously invented, and universally adopted by the vulgar; but which are not classic, have never ...
— The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5, November 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... saying, that if he would come and help him, he would make him Lord of Xativa and of all his other Castles, and would be at his mercy; and this he did to escape from the hands of Yahia. When Abenalfange heard this it pleased him well, and he sent one of his Alcaydes, who was called the Left-handed, to enter the Alcazar, and help to defend it till he could collect a company of Christians who might deal with Alvar Fanez. So that Left-handed one entered the Alcazar with his company, and the Lord of the Castle which was called Almenar, was already there to ...
— Chronicle Of The Cid • Various

... village which our two brigades of artillery occupied when the Armistice was signed, where the King came to see us, and M. le Maire, in his excitement, gave His Majesty that typically French, shall I say? clasp of intimacy and brotherliness, a left-handed handshake. ...
— Pushed and the Return Push • George Herbert Fosdike Nichols, (AKA Quex)

... Barbara, but you are growing bitter. Yes, I know you do not yourself mind left-handed snubs and remarks about your being "comfortably poor," but you won't have that splendid old father of yours put upon and sneezed at, with cigarette sneezes, too. You should realize that they don't know any better, also that presently they may become ...
— People of the Whirlpool • Mabel Osgood Wright

... point the back edge bends sharply forward to meet the cutting edge at the tip. A very peculiar feature of the blade is that it is slightly hollowed on the inner surface (I.E. the thumb side or left side in the case of the PARANG, of a right-handed man, the right side in case of one made for a left-handed man), and is convex in transverse section to a corresponding degree on the other surface. This peculiar shape of the blade is said to render the PARANG, more efficient in sinking into or through either limbs or wood, ...
— The Pagan Tribes of Borneo • Charles Hose and William McDougall

... game you've got. I'll throw you left-handed, Du Sang." With his right hand he snapped the dice under Du Sang's nose and looked squarely into his eyes. ...
— Whispering Smith • Frank H. Spearman

... mid-fifties, he had been unable to incorporate the information into his Unified Field Theory. Nordred had been able to show, mathematically, that Einstein's equations were valid only for a completely "dexter," or right-handed universe, or for a completely "sinister" or left-handed universe. ...
— Psichopath • Gordon Randall Garrett

... Fig. 231, shows an alternating current machine. In it a pair of bobbins, wound in series, and both either right-handed or left-handed, are rotated between permanent magnet poles. The current may be taken off by two brushes bearing on two collecting rings on the axis of the bobbins, the ends of the wire being connected thereto. Or if a shocking ...
— The Standard Electrical Dictionary - A Popular Dictionary of Words and Terms Used in the Practice - of Electrical Engineering • T. O'Conor Slone

... left-handed and passed parallel to the Grand Stand on the far side of the course, the light-weights were still well together in front and bunched like a covey of partridges. Then came the favourite and her stable-companion, rising fence for fence; after ...
— Boy Woodburn - A Story of the Sussex Downs • Alfred Ollivant

... was always rather inclined to be left-handed; it comes in usefully now," said Peter, who generally hurried over any reference to his misfortune. "Well, this morning, whilst we were playing, I asked Sarah, for the third time, to—to marry me. The third's the lucky time, isn't it?" he said, ...
— Peter's Mother • Mrs. Henry De La Pasture

... Darby and Joan; spiritual wife. monogamy, bigamy, digamy[obs3], deuterogamy[obs3], trigamy[obs3], polygamy; mormonism; levirate[obs3]; spiritual wifery[obs3], spiritual wifeism[obs3]; polyandrism[obs3]; Turk, bluebeard[obs3]. unlawful marriage, left-handed marriage, morganatic marriage, ill- assorted marriage; mesalliance; mariage de convenance[Fr]. marriage broker; matrimonial agency, matrimonial agent, matrimonial bureau, matchmaker; schatchen[Ger]. V. marry, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus • Peter Mark Roget

... name; not because he was left-handed, but simply because everything he did he did wrong—or nearly so. Reefing or furling, or handling a slush tub—if a mistake was to ...
— The Blue Lagoon - A Romance • H. de Vere Stacpoole

... never had such a fright in my life. If you can imagine Commodus in an old weather-beaten, broad-brimmed hat of soft, undyed felt and a mean, cheap, shaggy poncho of undyed wool, and worse than the hat, that was the man on the mare. He was left-handed, too." ...
— Andivius Hedulio • Edward Lucas White

... prose, that you will always be, in spite of everything that may be done, the very same you have been all your life; that is to say, a scatter-brain, a man of distempered reason, always perplexed, wanting common sense, a man of left-handed judgment, a meddler, an ass, a blundering, hare-brained, giddy fellow,—what can I think of? A... a hundred times worse than anything I can say. This is only ...
— The Blunderer • Moliere

... 1870.—Oh, for Dugumbe or Syde to come! but this delay may be all for the best. The parrots all seize their food, and hold it with the left hand, the lion, too, is left-handed; he strikes with the left, so are all animals left-handed ...
— The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II (of 2), 1869-1873 • David Livingstone

... read in McGuffey's Fourth Reader, studied the second part of Arithmetic, had learned to spell fairly well in the old Elementary Speller, and had also begun geography—a study which I liked very much. I was beginning to learn to write; but as I was left-handed, my movements ...
— Trials and Triumphs of Faith • Mary Cole

... said, "he bought this left-handed catapult thinking he might throw the discus farther than I can ...
— The City of Delight - A Love Drama of the Siege and Fall of Jerusalem • Elizabeth Miller

... on every roll, the dice got around to me before I had lost the nine hundred I had set out to drop. I put four chips on the "Don't Pass" side of the line, shook left-handed because of my weak right arm, and got ready to come out. Sniffles seized me. "Don't Billy Joe!" she said suddenly. "You'll lose!" She pushed my chips across the line to the "Pass" side. That ...
— Vigorish • Gordon Randall Garrett

... probate in any court. You are a bully in power and a coward out of it. What the devil do you want with me? I'm no bank. Be clear and quick about it and quit your infernal dodgin' human beins like a cut-throat. I've signed your name to no end of papers for you when you wouldn't put your own left-handed writin' in sight. I have your written permit safe for doin' it. I reckon somebody must a' put that right hand of yours out of commission sometime. I'll find out about it ...
— Winning the Wilderness • Margaret Hill McCarter

... the bench, face upwards. Two sat on my legs, two on my arms, and one held my head, so that I should not be able to wriggle. And another placed his left forefinger and thumb at my nose. (It seemed he was left-handed.) He curled up his finger and thumb, closed his eye, and began to fillip me on the nose. And how, do you think? Each time I saw my father in the other world. Murderers, slaughterers! What had they against my nose? What had it done to them? Whom had it bothered? What had they ...
— Jewish Children • Sholem Naumovich Rabinovich

... in weight; and if the Indian was any stronger than Rayburn, I can only say that he must have been a most wonderfully strong man. They were fighting on even terms; for the Indian was armed only with a short club, that he held in his left hand—and this left-handed method made him all the more awkward to deal with—while Rayburn, having emptied his revolver, was using as a club its ...
— The Aztec Treasure-House • Thomas Allibone Janvier

... that it's Jenko?" Jimmy chipped in. "You don't tell me it's our long left and left-handed Jenko, that has bowled me at the nets a hundred times?—alas, ...
— Foe-Farrell • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... hour a day, you will soon do wonders," said grandma, encouragingly. "I had a brother, once, who was left-handed, and he learned to use his right hand equally well. He drew beautifully, and would often work with a pencil in each hand. Not only that, but I have often seen him write with one hand and draw with ...
— Cricket at the Seashore • Elizabeth Westyn Timlow

... a painful wound to nurse, and as he was a left-handed Bear,—that is, when he wished to turn a rock over he stood on the right paw and turned with the left,—one result of this disablement was to rob him for a time of all those dainty foods that are found under ...
— The Biography of a Grizzly • Ernest Seton-Thompson

... passenger's prerogative of turning to the right was one of the priceless heritages wrested from King John by the barons at Runnymede; but when William the Conqueror rode into the Battle of Hastings he rode a left-handed horse—and so, very naturally and very properly, everything on hoof or wheel in England has consistently turned to the left ever since. I took some pains to look up the original precedents for these facts and ...
— Europe Revised • Irvin S. Cobb

... LEFT-HANDED WIFE. A concubine; an allusion to an ancient German custom, according to which, when a man married his concubine, or a woman greatly his inferior, he ...
— 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue • Captain Grose et al.

... other than a snarl of "Your own saying," Griffin leapt at my brother fiercely, only to meet a swing of his axe that sent his sword flying from his hand. And that was deft of Havelok, for there is nothing more hard to meet than a left-handed attack at any time, and this ...
— Havelok The Dane - A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln • Charles Whistler

... "Sorter left-handed—yep; a Cheyenne woman. Little thing like that did n't faze Gene none, if he did have a white wife—a blamed good-looker she was too. She was out here onc't, three years ago, 'bout a week maybe. Course she did n't know nothin' 'bout the ...
— Molly McDonald - A Tale of the Old Frontier • Randall Parrish

... country in war. And in case my compliments should miss their aim, I was always ready to cover my retreat with some agreeable pleasantry, which would often earn me the name of an 'oddity' or a 'droll fellow.' In this way, although I was so left-handed a toy-maker, I made out to be rather a successful merchant; and found means to procure many little delicacies and alleviations, such as ...
— St Ives • Robert Louis Stevenson

... specially fond of such compliments. When kind friends speak of a woman's "good days" there is an implication that some of her days are bad. Lady Sellingworth knew as well as any woman which compliments are left-handed and which are not. On one occasion soon after she returned to London from her tour round the world a woman friend ...
— December Love • Robert Hichens

... whom Facey was constantly talking, had a left-handed wife and promising family in the sylvan retirement of St. John's Wood, whither he used to retire after his business in 'Smi'fiel'' was over; so that Facey, for once, was out in his calculations. Gilroy, however, being as knowing as 'his nevvey,' as he called ...
— Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour • R. S. Surtees

... shall taste,' an' the littlest feller he starts a-coughin', oh, a turrible cough—it fair scairt me, like a hoopin' croup—an' the other seemed just mad, and the littlest wan made fun av him. Oi seen the mean wan wuz left-handed or let on he wuz, but when he reached out fur the bottle he had on'y three fingers on his right, an' they both av them had the biggest, blackest, awfulest lukin' bairds—I'd know them two bairds agin ...
— Two Little Savages • Ernest Thompson Seton

... in Paris, Lord Sempil, writes to him on July 5, 1745, with warnings against the Prince's counsellors, especially Sir Thomas Sheridan (Charles's governor, and left-handed cousin) and Kelly. They, with Lally Tollendal and others, arranged the descent on Scotland without the knowledge of James or Sempil, whom Charles and his party bitterly distrusted, as they also distrusted Lord Lismore (O'Brien), James's other agent. While the Prince was in Scotland ...
— Pickle the Spy • Andrew Lang

... called the score keeper, and the lanky left-handed hitter strolled up to the plate, while Riordan, who was on deck, took up a couple of bats, swinging them about nervously to limber ...
— Baseball Joe in the Big League - or, A Young Pitcher's Hardest Struggles • Lester Chadwick

... collars, and occasionally a starched bosom, called, in the expressive language of the day, a "biled shirt," completed the restoration of the man to decency. Now, also, the soldier with painful care threaded his needle with huge thread, and with a sort of left-handed awkwardness sewed on the long-absent button, or, with even greater trepidation, attempted a patch. At such a time the soldier pondered on the peculiar fact that war separates men from women. A man cannot thread a needle with ease; certainly not with ...
— Detailed Minutiae of Soldier life in the Army of Northern Virginia, 1861-1865 • Carlton McCarthy

... position of the pistil (621/1. In Exacum and in Saintpaulia the flowers are dimorphic in this sense: the style projects to either the right or the left side of the corolla, from which it follows that a right-handed flower would fertilise a left-handed one, and vice versa. See Willis, "Flowering Plants and Ferns," 1897, Volume I., page 73.) and in its relation to the two kinds of pollen. I am anxious about this, because if it should prove so, it will show that all plants with longer and shorter or otherwise ...
— More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume II - Volume II (of II) • Charles Darwin

... now. As military commander of a district he has attained power, enabling him to dispense with any left-handed assistance; and of late more than once has wished himself rid of such suspicious auxiliaries. Therefore, but for the frustration of his present plans, he would rather rejoice than grieve over the tidings brought ...
— The Lone Ranche • Captain Mayne Reid

... Of course, the two men, the table, and the clock are formed from four sets of Tangrams. My second picture is named "The Orchestra" (10), and it was designed for the decoration of a large hall of music. Here we have the conductor, the pianist, the fat little cornet-player, the left-handed player of the double-bass, whose attitude is life-like, though he does stand at an unusual distance from his instrument, and the drummer-boy, with his imposing music-stand. The dog at the back of the pianoforte is not howling: he ...
— Amusements in Mathematics • Henry Ernest Dudeney

... satisfied that only a particular friend would have been admitted to the bank by George that night; second, the blow was struck from behind, on the left side, showing that the murderer was probably left-handed. Mr. Drysdale satisfies both of these conditions; I visited him to-day and saw him write an address in my note-book with his left hand. Third, I have here a note for $927.78, signed 'Alexander P. Drysdale;' the signature, ...
— The Somnambulist and the Detective - The Murderer and the Fortune Teller • Allan Pinkerton

... mirth. "What a left-handed compliment, Judy. Is that the best you can do for me? I'm glad I ...
— Miss Pat at Artemis Lodge • Pemberton Ginther

... though a noise proceeds from inside it very like the panting of a pump. They tell me that this is an hydraulic machine for washing up the cups and plates; but I do not believe them, because so many people who take tea round the Pump-room drink left-handed, as if the reverse side of the cup ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 158, April 21, 1920 • Various

... more closely allied than others to Max, and who made him their idol. A character like his often fascinates other youths. The two grandsons of Madame Hochon—Francois Hochon and Baruch Borniche—were his henchmen. These young fellows, accepting the general opinion of the left-handed parentage of Lousteau, looked upon Max as their cousin. Max, moreover, was liberal in lending them money for their pleasures, which their grandfather Hochon refused; he took them hunting, let them see life, and exercised a much greater influence over ...
— The Celibates - Includes: Pierrette, The Vicar of Tours, and The Two Brothers • Honore de Balzac

... to the left-handed orderly who had beaten the infantry crack shot a few days before, "you may have a chance to see if your eye ...
— Pushed and the Return Push • George Herbert Fosdike Nichols, (AKA Quex)

... I was soon booked for a dunce, because the master found it impossible to teach me either to read or write. Before I had been at school two years, however, I had beaten boys four years older than myself, and could fling a stone with my left hand (for if I am right-eyed I am left-handed) higher and farther than any one in the parish. Moreover, no boy could equal me at riding, and no people ride so well or desperately as boys. I could ride a donkey—a thing far more difficult to ride than a horse—at ...
— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow

... to the goddess, and after being consecrated is sprinkled on every kind of uncooked food brought before her. But the worshipper and his family often drink only a few drops. The Saktas are divided into the Dakshinacharis and Bamacharis, or followers of the right- and left-handed paths respectively. The Dakshinacharis have largely abandoned animal sacrifices, and many of them substitute red flowers or red sandalwood as offerings, to represent blood. An account of those Bamacharis who carry sexual practices to extreme ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India—Volume I (of IV) • R.V. Russell

... resulting in the discovery of minute facets in the tartrate which gave it the power noted. He found in the paratartrate these facets existed, but that there was an equal admixture of right-and left-handed crystals, and the one neutralized the effect of the other. He also discovered the left-handed tartrate. These discoveries at the opening of Pasteur's career brought him at once to the front among the ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 6 of 8 • Various

... a moment, and then he said, dropping his bantering manner, which indeed sat rather heavily upon him: "I don't know why you should want to shoot at my scarfpin—or at me. I don't know why you should suddenly lay a pistol between us. I don't, in short, know why we should sit here paying each other left-handed compliments, when it was merely my intention to ...
— The Cruise of the Jasper B. • Don Marquis

... five players on the list for the Grays were left-handed batters, and against a right-handed pitcher whose most effective ball for them was a high fast one over the outer corner they would naturally hit toward left field. It was no surprise to see Hanley ...
— The Redheaded Outfield and Other Baseball Stories • Zane Grey

... Mr. Walpole's work I am perfectly convinced. Let no modern and malicious mind take this declaration for a left-handed compliment. Mr. Walpole's soundness is not of conventions but of convictions; and even as to these, let no one suppose that Mr. Walpole's convictions are old-fashioned. He is distinctly a man of his time; and it is just because of that modernity, informed by a sane ...
— When Winter Comes to Main Street • Grant Martin Overton

... thinking, or knowing. Which one of the two hemispheres will be the mental one will depend altogether on how it has been TAUGHT by the invisible thinker, who will begin to teach the left hemisphere if he is right-handed, or the right hemisphere if he is left-handed. He will leave the other hemisphere in each case wholly speechless or thoughtless, and concerned only with the business of governing the muscles or receiving the bodily sensations of its corresponding side. If brain matter really itself thought, we should have two thinking and speaking ...
— Stories from Everybody's Magazine • 1910 issues of Everybody's Magazine

... sail for Hawaii with a fleet of 400 canoes, and a rainbow "like a feather helmet" stands out at sea signaling her approach. The rest of the story has to do with the adventures of Umi's three warriors, Omaokamau who is right-handed, Koi who is left-handed, and Piimaiwae, who is ambidextrous, during the campaign on Maui, undertaken at Piikea's plea to gain for her brother, Kihapiilani, the rule over Maui. The son and successor of Umi is Keawenuiaumi, father ...
— The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai • Anonymous

... you might get nearer." The cowpuncher was looking at her squarely, now. "You ain't left-handed, are ...
— The Gold Girl • James B. Hendryx

... now carbolised, plugged, and bandaged by Saxham's dexterous hands, took the hastily-scrawled admission-order, included his officer, the ladies, and the Doctor in a left-handed salute, distributed a parting wink among his comrades, counselled W. Keyse in a hoarse whisper to go tender on the off-side G of the instrument he dandled, and trudged sturdily away in the direction of ...
— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves

... result fits its socket truly. So he was given welcome, paid twenty-five cents an hour, and made full member of exactly such a gang as he had known at Plato, after he had laughed away the straw boss who tried to make him go ask for a left-handed monkey-wrench. He roomed at a machinists' boarding-house, and enjoyed the furious discussions over religion and the question of air versus water cooling far more than he had ever enjoyed the polite jesting ...
— The Trail of the Hawk - A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life • Sinclair Lewis

... delivered your note (as an afterthought). And it's a very creditable production for a left-handed man; I thought at first ...
— Dear Enemy • Jean Webster

... were very thin and straggly, and she could not help coloring at this left-handed compliment; but at that moment Alice appeared on the balcony to tell the other two girls that the rules were ready, and that they might return to the house. They did so, and the rules were then read carefully over (by Elma on this occasion), criticized ...
— Wild Kitty • L. T. Meade

... unless he left Rome to her liberty. This was false, but both the lie and the murder were for Rome's sake; they were both admired by the Romans, who held that the welfare of their city was their very first duty. Mucius could never use his right hand again, and was always called Scaevola, or the Left-handed, a name that went on to ...
— Young Folks' History of Rome • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... eyes, half smiled, and shrank back, thinking she had never felt anything like the left-handed grasp, so full of warmth and thankfulness. It gave her confidence to venture on the one question on which she was bent. Her father was in the hall, showing Norman his Greek nymph; and lifting her eyes to Dr. May's face, then casting them down, ...
— The Daisy Chain, or Aspirations • Charlotte Yonge

... than before; then, bending his body and moving his head from one side to the other, as a cat does before she springs, and crying out, "Here's for ye, sodger!" he made a dart at Bagg, rushing in with his head foremost. "That will do, sir," says Bagg, and drawing himself back he put in a left-handed blow with all the force of his body and arm, just over the fellow's right eye—Bagg is a left-handed hitter, you must know—and it was a blow of that kind which won him his famous battle at Edinburgh with the big Highland sergeant. ...
— The Pocket George Borrow • George Borrow

... In this left-handed war against Catholic Spain many of the adventurers were, no doubt, stirred and incited by a grim, Calvinistic, puritanical zeal for Protestantism. But equally beyond doubt the gold and silver and plate of the "Scarlet Woman" had much to do with the persistent ...
— Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates • Howard I. Pyle

... one of the 12-in.-square pieces of wood as shown in Fig. 5. This is the same as Fig. 1, only the one is left-handed, the other right-handed. Put this together in mold No.1, instead of the right-handed piece; and run in babbitt metal again. The casting thus made will face together with the ...
— The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 - 700 Things For Boys To Do • Popular Mechanics

... sinistrality^; left, left hand, a gauche; sinister, nearside^, larboard, port. Adj. left-handed; sinister; sinistral, sinistrorsal^, sinistrorse^, sinistrous^; laevo- [Pref.]. ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... gave me this was none other than Benedict of Bourne himself—whom our good Duke doth fondly imagine pent up within Thrasfordham! O indeed 'twas Sir Benedict, I saw his hawk-face plain ere he closed his vizor, and he fought left-handed. Moreover, beside him I recognised the leaping dog blazoned on the shield of Hacon of Trant—Oho, this shall be wondrous news for Duke Ivo, methinks. But, faith, 'tis wonder how he escaped Sir Rollo, and as for the outlaw Beltane we saw nought of him—Sir Pertolepe vows he ...
— Beltane The Smith • Jeffery Farnol

... Landgrave, whilst yet a young man, had been assassinated in the forest when hunting. A year or two before this catastrophe he had contracted what, from the circumstances, was presumed, at the time, to be a morganatic or left-handed marriage, with a lady of high birth, nearly connected with the imperial house. The effect of such a marriage went to incapacitate the children who might be born under it, male or female, from succeeding. ...
— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey

... the Caffre chiefs were at that time much influenced by a most remarkable personage of the name of Mokanna. In the colony he was usually known by the sobriquet of 'Links,' or the left-handed. He was not a chief, but had by his superior intellect obtained great power. He gave himself out to be a prophet, and certainly showed quite as much skill as ever did Mahommed or any other false prophet. He had often visited Cape Town, and had made himself master of all that he could acquire ...
— The Mission • Frederick Marryat

... had fifteen children, eight daughters and seven sons, who, as the property left among them was small, drew lots to determine which one of them should marry, and continue the stout race of the Guelphs. The lot fell on Duke George, the sixth brother. The others remained single, or contracted left-handed marriages after the princely fashion of those days. It is a queer picture—that of the old prince dying in his little wood-built capital, and his seven sons tossing up which should inherit and transmit ...
— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray

... would think that was but a left-handed compliment, and look more angry than pleased, but no notice ...
— Varney the Vampire - Or the Feast of Blood • Thomas Preskett Prest

... in looking very pale and rather untidy. In the excitement of her mind and her general perturbation she had come out with two left-handed gloves, and during the whole of her visit endeavoured to force a left hand into a right-hand glove. It was maddening to ...
— Bird of Paradise • Ada Leverson

... such acquired power. The fencer who can transfer his weapon to the left hand places his adversary at a disadvantage. The lumberer finds it indispensable, in the operation of his woodcraft, to learn to chop timber right-and-left-handed; and the carpenter may be frequently seen using the saw and hammer in either hand, and thereby not only resting his arm, but greatly facilitating his work. In all the fine arts the mastery of both hands is advantageous. The sculptor, ...
— Froebel's Gifts • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... drive within his reach, went on to that favourite topic of all intelligent Englishmen, the adverse criticism of things British. He pointed out that the central position of the brake and gear levers in his automobile made it extremely easy for the American manufacturer to turn it out either as a left-handed or a right-handed car, and so adapt it either to the Continental or to the British rule of the road. No English cars were so adaptable. We British suffered much from our insular rule of the road, just as we suffered ...
— Mr. Britling Sees It Through • H. G. Wells

... Sleat was the son of Earl Alexander by a daughter of this Gille-Padruig ('Celtic Scotland,' Vol. III. p. 298) while Gregory suggests that the words naturalis and carnalis used by Hugh's father and brother in the charters already quoted "were used to designate the issue of those handfast or left-handed marriages which appear to have been so common in the Highlands and Isles." ['Western Highlands and Isles,' p.41] Whether the Sleat district of Skye was or was not carried for the first time to the Macdonald Earls of Ross and Lords of the Isles by this union with a member of the ...
— History Of The Mackenzies • Alexander Mackenzie

... the field crossed over, disposed anew to harry a left-handed batsman. Jim came over with his long, swinging walk, his head a little bent. He started a little at ...
— Mates at Billabong • Mary Grant Bruce

... set up an establishment for his daughter Frederica; Mademoiselle de Voss did the honours. The year passed, however, without the vestal's surrendering. She loved the King, but the honour of the family still weighed more with her than love. She set rigorous conditions to her capitulation: a left-handed marriage, the written consent of the Queen, and the removal of the titular mistress, Madame Rietz. On this last point the King was inflexible; he gave in on the other two. The Queen gave her consent, with the stipulation that there should be no real divorce ...
— German Problems and Personalities • Charles Sarolea



Words linked to "Left-handed" :   anticlockwise, maladroit, heavy-handed, ambiguous, ambidextrous, legitimate, left, ham-fisted, contraclockwise, levorotary, levorotatory, illegitimate, bungling, morganatic, sinistral, left-handed pitcher, bumbling



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