ˈtwo-ˈhanded, a.
(stress var.)
1. Wielded with both hands, as a sword, etc. (= prec. 1); involving the use of both hands.
| 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) VII. 243 Tailefer..toke a too⁓honded swerde, and..did slee oon of Ynglishe men. 1588 Reg. Privy Council Scot. IV. 277 With hagbute, bow, speir, or twa-handit swerd. 1637 Milton Lycidas 130 That two-handed engine..Stands ready to smite. 1667 ― P.L. vi. 251 With huge two-handed sway Brandisht aloft the horrid edge came down. 1814 Scott Diary 22 Aug., in Lockhart, The effigy of a warrior completely armed..with his hand on his two-handed broadsword. 1837 Penny Cycl. VIII. 283/1 This was probably the finger-alphabet from which our present two-handed one was derived. 1874 Swinburne Bothwell iv. ii, The sword Which was my grandsire's, whose two-handed stroke Did such-like service. |
2. Wielded or worked by the hands of two persons, as a saw; engaged in or played by two persons, as a card-game, etc.:
= prec. 2.
| 1657 R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 41 Cutting it with two-handed Saws. 1680 Cotton Compl. Gamester x. 83 Some play at two handed, or three handed whist. 1827 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 274 I'm real happy..to think that we're to hae a twa-handed crack. 1853 Sir H. Douglas Milit. Bridges vi. (ed. 3) 303 A plank..upon which..two men may stand to..work, conjointly, a heavy two-handed beetle. 1898 To-Day 5 Nov. 19/2 The Captain sat down to play two-handed poker with Chris. |
3. colloq. Big, bulky, strapping. ?
Obs.| 1687 T. Brown Saints in Uproar Wks. 1730 I. 73 A huge two-handed lubber, St. Christopher I think they call him. 1692 tr. C'tess D'Aunoy's Trav. iii. (1706) 44 The Hair..being..kept behind their Ears with a great Twohanded [mistranslating Fr. doublé ‘lined’] Hat. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Strapping-Lass, a swinging two-handed Woman. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones ix. iii, This Susan was as two-handed a wench (according to the phrase) as any in the country. 1830 Lamb Let. to Wordsworth 22 Jan., [Vulcan] the two-handed skinker. |
4. Having two hands.
| 1847 Carpenter Zool. 132 Bimana, or two-handed Mammals. Ibid. 137 Man alone is two-handed. |
5. Using both hands equally well, ambidextrous; dexterous, handy, efficient.
| 1861 G. J. Whyte-Melville Good for Nothing xxvii, A man soon learns to be two-handed in the bush. |
6. U.S. colloq. Generous, open-handed.
| 1929 D. Runyon in Cosmopolitan July 57/1 Miss Missouri Martin..puts the blast on her plenty for chasing a two-handed spender..out of the joint. 1933 G. Ade Let. 12 Sept. (1973) 173 He was..a two-handed drinker who could not carry his rum because he was too frail and intellectual. |
Hence
two-handedly adv., with or in both hands;
two-handedness;
two-hander, (
a) a two-handed sword; (
b)
Theatr., a play with a cast of two;
† two-handy a. = sense 1.
| 1927 Kipling Verse 1885–1926 730 *Two-handedly tossing me jewels. 1981 M. Kenyon Zigzag xxi. 143 Peckover, pickaxe two-handedly poised..stepped towards him. |
| 1891 Home Missionary (N.Y.) Jan. 389 A holy *two-handedness. |
| 1888 Archæologia LI. 512 The sword..is an exceedingly handsome example of the *two-hander of the sixteenth century. 1976 Listener 20 May 648/3 The play was..a two-hander, finely acted by Maurice Denham and Colette O'Neil. 1981 H. Baldry Case for Arts 9 The ever-diminishing casts of the plays which our theatre directors can afford to present... This is the time of the three-hander and the two-hander. |
| 1648 Hexham ii, Een Slach-swaerdt, a *two-handie Sword. |