quick-handed

adjective

Quick and dextrous.

Meanings

adjectivequick-handed (comparative more quick-handed, superlative most quick-handed)

comparative more quick-handed · superlative most quick-handed · alternative quickhanded

  1. Quick and dextrous.

    Particularly bright people did not turn out to be especially quick-handed, and particularly quick-handed people did not turn out to be especially bright.

    1973, Anne Storz, Psychology '73-'74, →ISBN, page 227
    2 more examples

    Ironically, the successful conviction on the part of Columbia's graduate students to preserve for posterity what I believe is perhaps the most thorough-going and most painlessly digested summary of economic-thought developments has never had Professor Mitchell's backing, and before his death Mitchell disclaimed any responsibility for errors that might have slipped into the quick-handed note taker's record since Mitchell had not even read what must have become the treasured possession of many a mature intellect among the large number of his students from both this country and abroad.

    1956, William Ernest Kuhn, Textbooks on Economic Thought: An Analysis of Some of Their Shortcomings, page 2

    This is an interesting trick, but I include it with some reluctance because it requires one very quick-handed juggler, and since quick-handedness and klutziness are not often associated, this might create a problem.

    2002, John Cassidy, B. C. Rimbeaux, Juggling for the Complete Klutz, →ISBN
  2. Done quickly and efficiently.

    When Hector completed his quick-handed twists, he gave the cube to Jon.

    2011, Tamara Duricka Johnson, 31 Dates in 31 Days, →ISBN
    2 more examples

    I should like first to thank Cristina Gutierrez, of my office staff, for her tireless and quick-handed work transcribing the hundreds of tape-cassettes on which the various drafts of the present work have been dictated.

    1990, Steve Allen, Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion, & Morality, page xvii

    Of the quick-handed sketches, the young furniture designer enthuses, "I find it's so important to keep jotting down ideas, even if they're the worst ideas in the world.

    2005, Jennifer New, Drawing From Life: The Journal as Art, →ISBN, page 120
adverbquick-handed (comparative more quick-handed, superlative most quick-handed)

comparative more quick-handed · superlative most quick-handed · alternative quickhanded

  1. Quickly and efficiently.

    As the two men, quick-handed, laid Bernard on a stretcher, Tess asked: 'Is he dead?'

    2000, C. P. Snow, The Malcontents, →ISBN, page 93
    1 more example

    They drain the stalk out with their arms, quick-handed, and cleanse it with a stream of mead and filters.

    1890, Ralph Thomas Hotchkin Griffith, The Hymns of the Rigveda - Volume 2, page 44
Cite this entry
APA

quick-handed. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quick-handed

MLA

“quick-handed.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quick-handed. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “quick-handed,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quick-handed.

Source: quick-handed on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.