▪ I. handicuff
Also handy-.
[f. hand n. or handy a. + cuff n.2: app. after fisticuff.]
pl. Blows with the hands; fighting hand to hand. Also fig.
| 1701 Dial. betw. Marphorio & Pasquin 12 By the Posture you are in, I suppose you are for handy-Cuffs. 1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. round World (1757) 271 [They] must have gone to handy cuffs with the enemy. 1761 Sterne Tr. Shandy III. xxi, His rhetoric and conduct were at perpetual handy-cuffs. 1816 C. James Milit. Dict. (ed. 4) 383/2 Jeux de main, manual play, or what are vulgarly called handicuffs. |
▪ II. handicuff
dial. var. of handcuff.