Dictionary

cross-handed en · ADJ

Etymology

From cross + handed.

Meanings

1. (not-comparable) Done with hands or forearms crossed over each other.
   • The cross-handed grip helps in maintaining the wrist position. 2013, Dan Joset, Boost Your Driving Range and Master Your Putting, →ISBN:
2. (not-comparable) Done by crossing the hand to the other side of the body.
   • I wonder how it would be to stand right in the beginning of the fast water, at the lip of the pool, and try a cross-handed cast. 2014, Gordon MacQuarrie, More Stories of the Old Duck Hunters, →ISBN:
3. (not-comparable) Involving two opposing directions.
   • Appreciable scattering of cross-handed radiation occurred in the middle of the band, leaving regions near the long- and short-wavelength band edges in which scattering of cross-handed radiation was negligible. 2011, Alexis Mendez, T. F. Morse, Specialty Optical Fibers Handbook, →ISBN, page 416:
4. (not-comparable, obsolete) Back-handed.
   • We believe and are thoroughly convinced that God's blessings come to his church in a cross-handed way, entirely different, in many instances, from the way we expect them. 1900, Signs of the Times, and Doctrinal Advocate and Monitor, Volume 68:

Forms

Deriveds

cross-handedly

cross-handed en · ADV

Etymology

From cross + handed.

Meanings

1. (not-comparable) With hands or forearms crossed over each other.
   • Both Arnold Palmer and Gary Player have been quoted as saying that if they could change one thing about their games, they would have putted cross-handed early in their career. 2009, Dr. Craig L. Farnsworth, The Putting Prescription: The Doctor's Proven Method for a Better Stroke, →ISBN, pages 42–43:
2. (not-comparable) While crossing the hand to the other side of the body.
   • Joe got them to rig him a holster so he could draw the .45 cross-handed. 2007, James Brady, Warning of War: A Novel of the North China Marines, →ISBN, page 297:
3. (not-comparable) In two opposing directions.
   • Or he can walk cross-handed following the principle of the cross-legged walk. In this variation, he can move forward, backward, or sideways. 1975, Hans G. Furth, Harry Wachs, Thinking Goes to School: Piaget's Theory in Practice, →ISBN, page 79:
   • The merchant fishermen at the falls acted as middlemen or factors, and passed the objects of traffic, as it were, cross-handed; trading away part of the wares received from the mountain tribes to those of the rivers and plains, and vice versa: […] 1836 October, Washington Irving, chapter X, in Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains. […], volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: [Henry Charles] Carey, [Isaac] Lea, & Blanchard, →OCLC, pages 109–110:
4. (not-comparable) Facing forward and pushing the oars away from the body on the power stroke (rather than facing backward and pulling the oars on the power stroke).
   • Just then, a sailor, who had crossed the channel, and was making rapid headway, by rowing cross-handed, emerged from behind a merchant vessel which was moored at the wharf. 1844, Rufus Dawes, Nix's Mate: An Historical Romance of America, →ISBN:
5. (not-comparable) Idly.
   • Why do we sit cross-handed and do nothing which would serve as a basis upon which to build the salvation of our people? 1978, Israel Digest - Volume 21, page 29:
6. (not-comparable, obsolete) Back-handedly.
   • ..the end has been answered, though the channel of conveyance has been in direct opposition to what I wanted or expected, like as Jacob in blessing Joseph's sons, he wittingly—ah it is wittingly indeed, we are blessed; namely, cross-handed. 1835, The Spiritual magazine, or Saint's Treasury, Volume XI, page 305:

Forms