Dictionary

ready-handed en · ADJ

Etymology

From ready + handed.

Meanings

1. (archaic) Capable or skillful, especially at manual tasks.
   • Abdul Kader, the tailor who had attached himself to me, as a man ready-handed at all things, from mending a pair of pants, making a delicate entremets, or shooting an elephant, but whom the interior proved to be the weakliest of the weakly, unfit for anything except eating and drinking — almost succumbed on this march. 1871, Henry Morton Stanley, How I Found Livingstone, published 2013, →ISBN:
   • All the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect happiness, gently waving his long thin fingers in time to the music, while his gently smiling face and his languid dreamy eyes were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound; Holmes the relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was possible to conceive. 1891 [August], A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Adventure II.—The Red-Headed League.”, in Geo[rge] Newnes, editor, The Strand Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly, volume II (July to December), number [8], London: […], page 199, column 1:
   • And ready money had been so much more plentiful of late, owing to poor John Morton's ready-handed honesty! 1876 May – 1877 July, Anthony Trollope, “At Last”, in The American Senator […], volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1877, →OCLC, page 170:

Forms

Deriveds

ready-handedness

ready-handed en · ADV

Etymology

From ready + handed.

Meanings

1. (archaic) In readiness, fully prepared.
   • Each arm well-sinewed, Each heart as a lion's ; Fiercely and wildly, Ready-handed and boldly, On each field be triumphant, Wherever you chance to be, Horo, make ready to go. 1984, John Lorne Campbell, Highland songs of the Forty-five, page 13:
   • But he, mighty of main, made trial of me, and gripp'd ready-handed. 2015, Francis B. Gummere, transl., Complete Beowulf - Old English Text, Translations and Dual Text, →ISBN:
   • Higher education— general, professional, and technical— whether under public or private auspices must be helped to grow both in quantity and quality until it is able to meet full and ready-handed the problem of training the leadership of our democracy. 1921, Pennsylvania School Journal, volume 70, page 93:

Forms