handless

comparative more handless · superlative most handless

1. Without any hands.

   Together with his mangled Myrmidons, That noseless, handless, hack'd and chipp'd, come to him

   c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]

2. obsoleteNot handy; awkward.

   This, however, was a thing that, left to himself, would have simply rendered Bill Lampiere a most handless workman at everything he attempted.

   1891, Dugald Ferguson, Vicissitudes of Bush Life in Australia and New Zealand, page 55

   1 more example

   We’ll take a dram for luck, and as soon as this handless man of mine has the collops ready, we’ll dine and take a hand at the cartes as gentlemen should.

   1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC

1. not comparableWithout a handle.

   She gave him a few coppers from the handless jug.

   1812, John Galt, Voyages and travels in the years 1809, 1810, and 1811, page 106

   3 more examples

   One battered, spoutless, handless, japanned-in jug, that did not contain water, for it leaked.

   1836, The Metropolitan, Volume 15, page 148

   Chinese soup is sipped in a handless cup (Chinese soup bowl) with its own soupspoon.

   2003, Manners... More than Etiquette, page 91

   The leftover dough from the loaves would be rolled out with a handless, wooden, rolling pin.

   2006, Elsieferne V. Stout, Dundy County Babe, page 44