off-handed, a.
(ˌɒfˈhændɪd, ɔː-)
a. = off-hand B.: esp. in reference to style or manner. (In quot. 1840 irreg. as adv. = off-hand A. 1.)
| 1835 Moore Diary 15 Aug. in Mem. (1856) VII. 103 Found Babbage very off-handed and agreeable. 1840 Barham Ingol. Leg., Hand of Glory ii, Nor, I'll venture to say, without scrutiny could he Pronounce her, off-handed, a Punch or a Judy. 1890 ‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 182 He's an off-handed chap. |
b. Mining. = off-hand B. 2 b. dial.
| 1846 W. E. Brockett J.T. Brockett's Gloss. North Country Words (ed. 3) II. 59 All workmen about a coal-pit are said to be off-handed who are not engaged in the business of hewing and putting the coal. 1906 Daily Chron. 16 Oct. 5/2 The ‘off-handed’ men..dispersed into the four seams of the pit. |
Hence ˌoff-ˈhandedly adv., in an off-handed manner, in a free and easy style, without ceremony; ˌoff-ˈhandedness, the quality of being off-handed.
| 1823 New Monthly Mag. VIII. 364 There is in them..an open off-handedness (to use a significant Irishism). 1883 F. M. Peard Contrad. xix, He was quite conscious of the off-handedness of Dorothy's manner. 1886 19th Cent. Oct. 541 The newspaper moralisers speak off-handedly of the skilled workman earning his two or three pounds a week. 1893 G. Allen Scallywag I. 40 Isabel Boyton answered a little offhandedly. 1905 G. B. Shaw Let. 3 Jan. (1972) II. 485 At my third meeting I was asked to take the chair. I consented as offhandedly as if I were the Speaker of the House of Commons. 1973 J. Wainwright Pride of Pigs 123 He could have felt sorry for Fuller..to be systematically, off-handedly squashed. |