large-handed

comparative more large-handed · superlative most large-handed

1. Having hands that are large.

   Burgundian sword in iron, about 3 feet 3 inches in length, imluding the. haft, which is very long, and proves that it must have been used by a robust and large-handed race.

   1870, Auguste Demmin, Weapons of War, →ISBN, page 153

   2 more examples

   (Much luck Natalie will have, with those freckles), Margot thought, her spite laced with a slipping envy, knowing herself too squat and large-handed to compete with the prettier women like Natalie, freckles or not.

   2014, Diana Marcellas, Mother Ocean, Daughter Sea, →ISBN

   He is a poor wretch, with a little thin fishy blood in his body, lean and flat, long-armed and large-handed, thick-jointed and thin-muscled -- you know those unwholesome, weak-eyed, half-fed creatures, that look not fit to be round among live folks, and yet not quite dead enough to bury.

   1858, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Selected Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

2. Spending or giving in large quantities; generous or spendthrift.

   God loves a cheerful large-handed giver, and He is Himself the model and pattern of magnificence in giving.

   1882, Henry James Coleridge, The Ministry of Saint John Baptist

   2 more examples

   At the instigation of Colbert, whose rigid honesty was scandalised by Fouquet's large-handed and prodigal corruption, Louis determined to curb these soaring aspirations.

   1849 July, Comte De Tocqueville, “Histoire Philosophique du Règne de Louis XV”, in Edinburgh Review, Or Critical Journal, page 50

   Yet I do not call to mind that I was ever in my earlier youth the subject of remark in our social family circle, but some large-handed person took some such ophthalmic steps to patronize me.

   1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

3. Greedy, rapacious.

   Bound servants, steal! Large-handed robbers your grave masters are, And pill by law!

   1623, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens

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   It was the beginning of a feudalism of the range, a barony rude enough, but a glorious one, albeit it began, like all feudalism, in large-handed theft and generous murdering.

   1921, Emerson Hough, The Passing of the Frontier: A Chronicle of the Old West, page 34

   The critical players are not the consumers of Monopoly (enjoying the fun of playing large-handed capitalists), but the Georgists and Quakers making the game.

   2014, Olga Goriunova, Fun and Software: Exploring Pleasure, Paradox and Pain in Computing, →ISBN, page 202