English

Alternative forms

• doublehanded

Adjective

double-handed ‎(not comparable)

1. Involving both hands.
   • 2002, Lilli Ahrendt & ‎Mathilde Kohl, Baby Swimming, ISBN 1841260770, page 116:

     With this double-handed frontal horizontal grip the child is held in secure prone position so that its legs can move freely.

2. Designed to be used with two hands.
   • 2010, Steve Starling, Fishing For Dummies, ISBN 174246839X:

     Usually 2–3.5 metres in length, double-handed spinning rods are ideal for tackling slightly larger fish, including tailor, salmon (hahawai), trevally, flathead, snapper, barramundi, and Murray cod.

3. Involving two people.
   • 2010, Malcolm Pryce, Last Tango in Aberystwyth, ISBN 1408809036:

     The double-handed conversation had started to resemble a vaudeville act.

4. Serving two purposes or involving two approaches.
   • 2003 June, “Economic Outlook”, in OECD Economic Outlook, number 1, ISBN 926410058X:

     A “double-handed” strategy is called for, where the authorities show a readiness to intervene in the short run to support the economy should it flag again, while at the same time providing economic agents with a sense of long-term direction and governance to re-establish confidence.

   • 2010, Gary Willis, The Key Issues Concerning Contemporary Art, ISBN 1921775181:

     Duchamp played a double-handed game, on one hand a public strategy on the other a clandestine commitment.

5. deceitful; deceptive
   • 1835, Alphonse de Lamartine, A Pilgrimage to the Holy Land:

     Ibrahim, who entertains suspicions of this double-handed policy, compromises the Prince by every means in his power.

   • 2010, Sukanya Banerjee, Becoming Imperial Citizens, ISBN 0822391988, page 131:

     While the idea of a “special post” reflects, as we have seen earlier, the double-handed way in which female professional labor was capitalized upon by the state, it also shows how the colonial bureaucracy used the vector of work to normalize a certain congruity between gender and citizenship.

Adverb

double-handed ‎(not comparable)

1. With two hands.
   • 2015, Nick Oldham, Edge: A Henry Christie thriller, ISBN 178010619X:

     Holding his stick double-handed, the man swung it around mid-height towards Henry's already bruised rib cage.

Verb

double-handed

1. simple past tense and past participle of double-hand
   • 2015, Becky Masterman, Fear the Darkness, ISBN 1409143740:

     I could see it the first time I met her, the way she peered at Carlo, whom she had just met. and at the gala the other night, the way she fell into Adrian Franklin and then double-handed his hand when he helped her up.