ambidexter

plural ambidexters · alternative ambodexter

1. Someone who is ambidextrous.

   Synonyms: ambi, amby

2. archaicA lawyer who takes fees from both plaintiff and defendant.

   1 more example

   But the thing which in eminent instances signalizes so exceptional a nature is this: though the man's even temper and discreet bearing would seem to intimate a mind peculiarly subject to the law of reason, not the less in his heart he would seem to riot in complete exemption from that law, having apparently little to do with reason further than to employ it as an ambidexter implement for effecting the irrational.

   1888–1891, Herman Melville, “(please specify |chapter=I to XXVI)”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC

3. broadlySomeone who is two-faced; a double-dealer, such as a cheat or a crook.

   One takes upon him temperence, holiness[…], whenas indeed he, and he, and he, and the rest are hypocrites, ambidexters, outsides, so many turning pictures, a lion on one side, a lamb on the other.

   1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York: New York Review Books, published 2001, →ISBN, page 65

alternative ambodexter

1. not comparableAmbidextrous.

   He then changed his battery, and being ambidexter, raised such a clatter upon the turnkey’s blind side, that this hero, believing him left-handed, converted his attention that way, and opposed the unenlightened side of his face to the right hand of Pipes […]

   1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC