English

Adjective

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

1. Skillful at manual tasks.
   • 2013, Louise Hill Curth, 'A plaine and easie waie to remedie a horse':, ISBN 9004257705, page 161:

     Thomas DeGrey outlined the basic surgical skills as including the ability to: 'Cauterize well, to let blood well, to be light and well-handed, bold and hardy in dressing of a Horse well'.

   • 2014, George Mackay Brown, The Masked Fisherman and Other Stories, ISBN 1848549369:

     He has a well-handed wife called Mareon that will bake and brew for seafarers and horsemen.

   • 2014, Amber Leigh Williams, Married One Night, ISBN 1488703280:

     She watched the muscles in his forearm flex as he cut the bread with the precision of a well-handed cook, while she fought the urge to lick her lips.

   • 2014, George Mackay Brown, Hawkfall, ISBN 1848549504:

     There was now, for instance, that bonny respectable well-handed lass in the village -- Thora Garth -- what objection could there be to her? She would make a good wife to any man, though of course her father was only a fisherman and not overburdened with wealth.

2. Skillfully put together.
   • 1889, The Churchman - Volume 60, page 197:

     But the interest of a well-handed argument is, perhaps, as strong an influence as any which can be exerted to control attention.

   • 1990, Southerly: A Review of Australian Literature:

     A whole family mythology is gradually set up, as different people's stories begin to intertwine. It is a discontinuous narrative that is well-handed on the whole, with enough common ground between the narratives to hold the book together, although I found the middle parts of James Cleaver's family history far too long, and the repetition of images rather too persistent.

   • 2008, John Howard Reid, Silent Films & Early Talkies on DVD:, ISBN 1435710738, page 145:

     A director who loves to over-employ close-ups doesn't help the cliched plot move forward with any speed, but fortunately a well-handed mine disaster does spark up interest in the movie's perennial conflict between capitalists and laborers.

3. Having well-formed hands (and arms)
   • 2014, Julius Eggeling, The Satapatha Brahmana, Part III, page 64:

     May the divine Savitri, the well-handed, well-fingered, and well-armed, clear thee by his might!'

   • 1728, Robert Lindsay, The History of Scotland: From 21 February, 1436. to March 1563:

     A Bairn was born reckoned to be a Man-Child; but, from the Waste up, was two fair Persons, with all Members and Portraitures pertaining to two Bodies, to wit, Two Heads, well-eyed, well-eared, and well-handed.

   • 1852, Charles MacFarlane, Japan, page 59:

     They were well-faced, well-handed and footed, clear-skinned and white, but wanting color, which they do amend by art.

4. Having plenty of support.
   • 1903, The Car Worker - Volume 1, page 12:

     ... but it also teaches you the value of organization, it shows you the real meaning and import of a well-handed force that makes for good, it sharpens your wit in debate, it loosens your tongue in the right way and in proper channels, and it instills into you a knowledge of parliamentary law and practice that must needs....

   • 2011, Colin MacFarlane, The Real Gorbals Story, ISBN 1780571682:

     I learned from then on never to go to the pictures alone. It was far better to be well-handed, with some of my friends, just in case any trouble broke out.

   • 2013, Benjamin R. Beede, The War of 1898 and U.S. Interventions, 1898 To 1934, ISBN 1136746919:

     Shafter was also deficient in field artillery, the arm traditionally used to "soften up" defensive positions before an assault. This weakness was partially remedied on 1 July by a well-handed battery of rapid-fire Gatling guns, the first significant use of such weapons by the United States Army.

5. (obsolete, Jamaica) Well-supplied with slaves.
   • 1789, Great Britain Parliament House of Commons, Abridgment of the Minutes of the Evidence Taken Before a Committee of the Whole House, to whom it was referred to consider the Slave-Trade, page 115:

     On all estates, the boiling goes on night and day, except sunday. But well-handed estates have three spells, and intermissions accordingly.

   • 1817, Hezekiah Niles, ‎William Ogden Niles, & ‎Jeremiah Hughes, Niles' National Register, Volume 11, page 7:

     Here an estate, which would plant 103 acres of canes, would, I presume, to be well-handed, have 250 negroes, young and old, which may all, except infants and the very aged, be said to contribulte less or more to the cultivation of the cane; but deducting 100 for infants' nurses, and other ineffective hands, we have, for the remaining 150, 906 lbs each.

   • 2010, James Stephen, The Slavery of the British West India Colonies Delineated, ISBN 1108020836, page 139:

     That there were in this respect few "very well-handed," or to use Mr. Campbell's phrase, "fully slaved eatates," was manifest from the statements of almost every witness to whom the standing question, whether the Islands were sufficiently stocked with slaves, was put.