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hardhanded. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
hardhanded, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
hardhanded in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From hard + handed, from the firmness of a strike with the hand or the hardness of calluses on a laborer's hands.
Adjective
hardhanded (comparative more hardhanded, superlative most hardhanded)
- Forceful, excessive, draconian, or abusive.
- 1785, William Cowper, “The Garden”, in The Task, a Poem, in Six Books. By William Cowper To which are Added, by the Same Author, An Epistle to Joseph Hill, Esq. Tirocinium, or a Review of Schools, and The History of John Gilpin, London: Printed for J Johnson, No. 72 St. Paul's Church-Yard, OCLC 221351486; republished as The Task. A Poem. In Six Books. To which is Added, Tirocinium: or, A Review of Schools, new edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: Printed for Thomas Dobson, bookseller, in Second-street, second door above Chestnut-street, 1787, OCLC 23630717, page 87:
- 'Tis the cruel gripe, / That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts, / The hope of better things, the chance to win, / The wiſh to ſhine, the thirſt to be amus'd, / That at the found of Winter's hoary wing, / Unpeople all our counties, of ſuch herds, / Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, looſe, / And wanton vagrants, as make London, vaſt / And boundless as it is, a crowded coop.
1869, Thomas Carlyle, Thomas Carlyle's Collected works, volume 9, page 207:To deliver out of that Egyptian bondage to Wretchedness, and Ignorance, and Sin, the hardhanded millions
2008, Ben Shapiro, Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House, page 4:Martin Van Buren—plain, republican, hardhanded-democratic-locofoco Martin Van Buren—has [the East Room] now garnished with gold framed mirrors 'as big as a barn door,'
2011, Robin Hobb, Dragon Keeper: Volume One of the Rain Wilds Chronicles, page 409:He's a hard man, hardhanded, hard-hearted, he doesn't strike me.
- Working-class; having hands hardened from labor.
1864, Thomas Carlyle, Critical and miscellaneous essays, page 374:To deliver out of that Egyptian bondage to Wretchedness, and Ignorance, and Sin, the hardhanded millions, of whom this hardhanded, earnest witness, and writer, is here representative.
2002, Alexander Leggatt, English Stage Comedy 1490-1990, →ISBN, page 23:One reason why Peter Quince and his actors make such a fine mess of the tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe is they are 'Hardhanded men that work in Athens here'.
2003, Henry George, Kenneth C. Wenzer, Henry George: Collected Journalistic Writings - Volume 1, →ISBN, page 68:All experience proves that capital invariably secures the lion's share of the products and profits of hardhanded industry.
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