Dictionary

ironhanded en · ADJ

Etymology

From iron + handed, from the idea of having an iron hand.

Meanings

1. (alt-of, alternative) Alternative form of iron-handed.
   alt of iron-handed
   • In this traditional context, it's easy to assume that anything short of an ironhanded, authoritarian attitude toward discipline is flat-out permissive, although this common belief is not remotely true. 2014, Jane Bluestein, Managing 21st Century Classrooms: How do I avoid ineffective classroom management practices?, →ISBN, page 3:
   • Nationalist upheaval consumed Yugoslavia after the death of Tito, the ironhanded unifier. 2010, Tibor Iván Berend, Europe Since 1980, →ISBN, page 124:
   • He was an “ironhanded father-figure” (C. Reid, 1998, p. 216). This ironhanded aspect sometimes went too far, like when he forced Erich Lehmann to resign his editorship of Annals of Mathematical Statistics. 2011, W Paul Vogt, SAGE Quantitative Research Methods, →ISBN, page 7:

Forms

Deriveds

ironhandedness · ironhandedly