Dictionary

steady-handed en · ADJ

Etymology

From steady + handed.

Meanings

1. Capable of smooth, sure movements.
   • He was a steady-handed shooter with a heavy stick and the ability to back a ball up or make it spin left or right and position a queue ball behind the next shot to be taken–unique skills, even before Minnesota Fats. 2010, Charles E. Day, The Tenth Man: Living Black in Blue, →ISBN, page 107:
   • Yet despite its good intentions, the IRL has attracted more untried, fuzz-faced young gunslingers-in-waiting than tight-jawed, steady-handed shootists, pulling in only two drivers who still fit the mold. 2000 May, Jerry Miller, “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?”, in Indianapolis Monthly, volume 23, number 10, page 65:
   • Uncle Tommy, the once steady-handed Gene Krupa of the Vernon Troubadours and the Palmer Orchestra, whose sticks never missed a snare or a cymbal, missed the bowl of meatballs on the table. 2009, Barbara-Jo Lucchine Kruczek, Play Me a Song, →ISBN, page 159:
2. Executed with smooth, sure movements.
   • It's hard if you work at it easy, and it's easy if you work hard at setting your sight on a specific marker at the end of the field and on steady-handed steering toward the marker. 2011, Mel Harmon, A Trout In The Milk: Profiles In Prosecution, →ISBN, page 34:
   • The barber laughs so hard at the simple answer to the riddle that Logan fears for his chances of a steady-handed shave. 2012, Ross Bentley-Davies, Walkers Creek: A Western, →ISBN, page 17:
   • Theories about how a skill evolves from the awkward and deliberate performance associated with the cognitive stage to the smooth and steady-handed performance of the automatic response stage have one thing in common: progress appears to depend on repeated practice. 2010, FAA, Aviation Instructor's Handbook, page 2-21:
3. Consistent and reliable.
   • The Conservative Party under Thatcher was famously steady-handed in targeting certain elements of the then-existing British labor market structure and complementing social programs. 2014, Carsten Jensen, The Right and the Welfare State, →ISBN, page 89:
   • The final phase of Mexican League history was launched only after the sudden death of Jorge Pasquel in 1955; it consisted of steady-handed rebuilding of league fortunes under the capable direction of a new league management. 2005, Peter C. Bjarkman, Diamonds Around the Globe, →ISBN, page 270:
   • Foreign policy has to be dealt in a steady-handed and consistent manner. 2012, Hossam Nasser, From Richard Kimble to Barack Obama: America as Viewed by an Egyptian-American who Loves Her, →ISBN:

Forms

Deriveds

steady-handedness

steady-handed en · ADV

Etymology

From steady + handed.

Meanings

1. In a steady-handed manner.
   • The boy caught it steady-handed and grinned wide. “Oh good hands, lad! 2004, Nate Cleveland, Bare Hands, Numb Skulls, →ISBN, page 61:
   • I moved beside her and was shocked, not by method, not by truth, for it was true, but by her ability to paint clear-eyed, steady-handed, and show this thing. 2005, Maurice Gee, Scornful Moon, →ISBN:
   • Yet he faced his foemen with dauntless courage, dashing in, springing back, sure-footed, steady-handed, with a point which seemed to menace three at once. 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company:

Forms