large-handed, a.
(Stress variable.)
† 1. fig. Grasping, rapacious. Obs.
| 1607 Shakes. Timon iv. i. 11 Large-handed Robbers your graue Masters are. |
2. fig. Generous, liberal, open-handed.
| a 1628 [implied in large-handedness]. 1885 Cassell's Encycl. Dict. s.v., Large-handed charity. |
3. lit. Having large hands.
| 1896 O. Schreiner in Fortnightly Rev. Aug. 233 They [Boers] are generally large-limbed, large-handed men. |
Hence large-ˈhandedness (in quot. ? lavishness, or ? rapacity).
| a 1628 F. Greville Sidney xvi. (1652) 208 Shee watched over the nimble Spirits, selfe-seeking or large handednesse of her active Secretaries. |