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horny-handed. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Etymology
From horny (“bony or hard like an animal’s horn, calloused, rough”) + handed.[1]
Pronunciation
Adjective
horny-handed (comparative more horny-handed, superlative most horny-handed)
- Having hands that are horny (calloused) and tough from manual labour; hardhanded.
1906, W[illiam] S[omerset] Maugham, chapter XVI, in The Bishop’s Apron: A Study in the Origins of a Great Family, London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC; republished as The Bishop’s Apron (EBook #47523), United States: Project Gutenberg, 28 June 2020:"My patience must be inexhaustible. I am much tempted to kick you downstairs, Mr. Railing." / "You forget that I'm a working-man and horny-handed, so it's safer not to try."
1953, Jared Van Wagenen, Jr., “The Farm Implements of the Homespun Age”, in The Golden Age of Homespun, Ithaca, N.Y., London: Fall Creek Books, Cornell University Press, published 2010, →ISBN, page 237:The pitchfork remains one of the hand tools that no invention can ever wholly replace, and I suppose that unborn generations of men will grow hornyhanded and weary in its use.
1983, Emile Guillaumin, chapter XLVII, in Margaret Crosland, transl., edited by Eugen Weber, The Life of a Simple Man, Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, →ISBN, page 160:He was so fond of drink, that he would shamelessly accept the contemptuous hospitality of hornyhanded workmen.
1985, Laurie Penman, “Tools and Equipment”, in The Clock Repairer’s Handbook, Newton Abbot, Devon, London: David & Charles; New York, N.Y.: Arco Publishing, →ISBN, page 157, column 2:The dot punch is used to make a more permanent mark than a pencilled or scratched line; […] The mark is made with a tap from a light hammer, although I have known horny[-]handed markers who did it with simple hand pressure.
Derived terms
Translations
having hands that are horny and tough from manual labour
References
- ^ “horny-handed, adj.” under “horny, adj. and n.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2022; “horny-handed, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.