Meanings
- in compoundsnot comparableHaving a certain kind or number of hands.
- in compoundsnot comparableHaving a peculiar or characteristic hand or way of treating others.
As poisonous tongued as handed
1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii] - not comparableobsoleteWith hands joined; hand in hand.
Into their inmost bower, / Handed they went.
1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC1 more example
yet now, if any two be but once handed in the Church, and have tasted in any sort the nuptiall bed, let them finde themselves never so mistak’n in their dispositions through any error, concealment, or misadventure, that through their different tempers, thoughts, and constitutions, they can neither be to one another a remedy against lonelines, nor live in any union or contentment all their dayes, yet they shall, so they be but found suitably weapon’d to the least possibility of sensuall enjoyment, be made, spight of antipathy to fadge together, and combine as they may to their unspeakable wearisomnes and despaire of all sociable delight in the ordinance which God establisht to that very end.
1643, John Milton, Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce
- participlepastsimple past and past participle of hand
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveSynonym of chiral.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Germanic*handuz
- Proto-West Germanic*handu
- Old Englishhand
- Middle Englishhond
- Englishhand
- Englishhanded
Translations
Finnish kätinen
- kätinenhaving a peculiar or characteristic hand
Polish mający rękę
- mający rękęhaving a peculiar or characteristic hand
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with handed
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
handed. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/handed
“handed.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/handed. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “handed,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/handed.
Source: handed on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.