• Broken-handed

    Alternate forms

    Origin

    broken + handed

    Full definition of broken-handed

    Adjective

    broken-handed

    1. Having a hand that is broken.
      • 1916, University of Pennsylvania Law Review and American Law Register, Volume 65, If one of them is broken-handed or lame or dumb or blind or deaf—he is not declared a son stubborn and rebellious, as it is said 'Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him,' which is impossible if they be broken-handed;
      • 2011, Lafcadio Hearn, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, Vol 1, The priests are gone; the great bell is gone; the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas have vanished, all save one—a broken-handed Jizo of stone, smiling with eyelids closed, under the moon.
      • 2014, Don Pendleton, Cold War Reprise, The stunned and broken-handed killer struggled to turn, but the big American grabbed the mangled paw and twisted hard.
    2. Performed using a broken hand.
      • 2011, P. T. Deutermann, Pacific Glory: A Novel, He paddled hard, doing a broken-handed breaststroke, kicking for his life despite the damage in his knees.
    © Wiktionary