light-handed

• lighthanded

From Middle English lyghte handyd, from light (adjective) +‎ honded, participle of honden (“to seize, take charge of”),^[1] from the noun hond (“hand”). See more at hand.

• enPR: lītʹhăn'd(ĭ)d
• Hyphenation: light‧hand‧ed

light-handed (comparative lighter-handed or more light-handed, superlative lightest-handed or most light-handed)

1. Gentle; benign and with minimal intervention.
   • 1979, United States Congress House Committee on Government Operations. Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Subcommittee, Energy Conservation Within the Federal Government: The Department of Energy's Role. Hearings, page 104:

     Does it reflect your position toward the other agencies that, in the words of your Deputy, this program should be as lighthanded as possible?

   • 1997, U.S. National Conference on State Parks, Trends, page 33:

     On the other hand, lighthanded methods are believed to have more subtle effects on behaviors, often through influencing attitudes, creating knowledge, or manipulating the environment to accomplish desirable ends.

   • 2002, Irini Rockwell, The Five Wisdom Energies: A Buddhist Way of Understanding Personalities, Emotions, and Relationships, →ISBN:

     They are aware that the more light-handed their power, the more effective it is.

   • 2012, Michael A. Crew, Competition and the Regulation of Utilities, →ISBN, page 81:

     FERC then drew on a potentially significant dictum from Farmers Union II: "Moving from heavy to lighthanded regulation within the boundaries of an unchanged statute can ... be justified by a showing that under current circumstances the goal and purposes of the statute will be accomplished through substantially less regulatory oversight."

   • 2013, Brian Easton, The Whimpering of the State: Policy After MMP, →ISBN:

     At the other extreme, the view has been that light-handed 'regulation' is a euphemism for 'handsoff'.

   • 2013, Pauline Fatien Diochon, Albert J. Mills, Emmanuel Raufflet, The Dark Side 2: Critical Cases on the Downside of Business, →ISBN:

     By maintaining a light-handed approach, regulations could be kept to a minimum, with additional measures introduced to overcome any weaknesses in the regulartory framework that arose over time.

2. Sparing; applying only slight pressure or minimal amounts.
   • 2010, Riku Campo, Best in Beauty, →ISBN, page 257:

     The shadow was now also applied to the lower lash line, but still very light-handed.

   • 2000, Amy Einsohn, The Copyeditor's Handbook, →ISBN, page 27:

     Kate's light-handed copyedit is shown in figure 1, along with a medium and heavy copyediting of the same passage.

   • 2014, Agatha Kulaga, Erin Patinkin, Ovenly: Sweet & Salty Recipes from New York's Most Creative Bakery, →ISBN, page 43:

     honey tends to soak into the cake, so be light-handed with it

   • 2014, Donna Lynn Thomas, Quiltmaking Essentials I: Cutting and Piecing Skills, →ISBN:

     When sewing strip sets, use a lighthanded approach feeding the strips under the presser foot so the crosswise grain isn't stretched.

   • 2014, Marc Twine, Intermission: Volume 1:

     When it came to food, Melissa preferred subtle nuance and lighthanded seasoning.

   • 2015, Jamuna Pai, No One Has to Know: Anti-ageing for the Indian Skin, →ISBN:

     Did you know that the light-handed, 'less is more' approach works best even for heavy acne and deep wrinkles?

3. Delicate and skilled; nimble and dextrous
   • 1877, Henry James, Four Meetings:

     Winterbourne constantly attended for news from the sick-room, which reached him, however, but with worrying indirectness, though he once had speech, for a moment, of the poor girl's physician and once saw Mrs Miller, who, sharply alarmed, struck him as thereby more happily inspired than he could have conceived and indeed as the most noiseless and lighthanded of nurses.

   • 1893, Richard Redgrave, A Catalogue of the National Gallery of British Art at South Kensington, page 19:

     The early works of this painter are a complete study for lighthanded and beautiful execution; they look imitatively perfect, yet many instances are known of his extreme rapidity of execution.

   • 1902, Anna Barrows, Estelle Minerva Hatch Merrill, Mary Johnson Lincoln, Everyday Housekeeping: A Magazine for Practical Housekeepers and Mothers, Volumes 17-18:

     Fowl boiled with a mayonnaise sauce flavored variously, or served in aspic jelly; chicken pie with a crust made from Mrs. Beeton's recipe, and by a light-handed cook, forms a dish not to be despised on a hot day.

   • 1975, Robert I. Levy, Tahitians: Mind and Experience in the Society Islands, →ISBN, page 44:

     From all evidence he manages the subtle responsibilities of the tdvana role with a delicate and lighthanded virtuosity.

   • 2011, Achmed Abdullah, Vincent Starrett, Adventure Tales #5, →ISBN:

     He had hoped -- Fleming sighed a little and frowned a little as he though of his aspirations-- that he could have got a partner to fertilize the flowers. A light-handed partner, with the deftness for the pinch and the touch with the toothpick that was all the work demanded in the early morning hours of coolness.

   • 2012, Brenda Jagger, Distant Choices, →ISBN:

     This much she knew her mother to be aiming for, motivated by a need to escape the fate and the malice of women like Maud, a need to arrange matters by her own light-handed, cool-hearted expertise so that when High Grange did become the property of Francis, or another, she would be in a position to laugh as she took her leave, driving off in her own carriage to pleasures of her own choosing, in her own home.

   • 2014, Ruth Axtell Morren, Winter Is Past, →ISBN:

     The children are so quick and light-handed, the victim doesn't feel a thing.

4. Light-hearted; fun and witty or easygoing.
   • 1981-1982, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure

     We make several light-handed or joking references to my change.

   • 1996, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, →ISBN, page ccxxiv:

     Both were extensively-travelled cosmopolitans, popular and at home in salons across the world; good talkers (Yazid often to excess) with perfect command of English, a light-handed sense of humour and easy-going manners.

   • 2001, Woody Register, The Kid of Coney Island: Fred Thompson and the Rise of American Amusements, →ISBN:

     This piece of advice and the hyperkinetic manner in which it was staged owed less to McCay's light-handed and dreamily paced fantasy than to the boy wonder of Broadway and the amusement empire that he tried to amass during the first decade of the twentieth century..

   • 2002, Stephen Windwalker, Selling Used Books Online, →ISBN, page 62:

     If you live and work in a small town atmosphere and can find acceptable ways to make yourself and your enterprise known in a lighthanded way to either or both groups in your town, you may find that some day down the road one of them will mention you to a family member who has just offhandedly mentioned the need to get rid of a collection of books.

   • 2003, Ida Friederike Görres, The Hidden Face: A Study of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, →ISBN, page 112:

     Gaiety and an overflowing, outpouring love, warmth and clarity, a lighthanded ease, replaced the tormented tension of the will which had marked the outgrown stage.

   • 2004, Willi Goetschel, Spinoza's Modernity: Mendelssohn, Lessing, and Heine, →ISBN, page 268:

     In recovering the pointedly Spinozist impulse, the deeper critical motivation behind Heine's seemingly lighthanded poetic playfulness comes to the fore.

   • 2012, Elizabeth Bowen, Friends and Relations: A Novel, →ISBN, page 35:

     He seemed likeable, a scrupulous, slow young man, without the disengagedness of Considine, that light-hearted, light-handed seducer who (Edward had come to believe) even shot lions negligently.

5. Flippant; lacking seriousness.
   • 1921, Coal Age - Volume 20, page 669:

     Philip Penna, of Indiana, a veteran of many labor controversies, roundly scored the United Mine Workers for their light-handed treatment of their contracts.

6. (nautical or military) Not having a full complement of workers.
   • 1836, James Fenimore Cooper, The Water Witch:

     “We will hold on to the last, while he must begin to take in soon, or the squall will come upon him too fast for a light-handed vessel.”

   • 1841, Richard Henry Dana, The Seaman's Friend, page 57:

     If light-handed, or the wind fresh, let go the bowline and ease off the tack, (being careful to let the bowline go before the tack,) and haul up the weather clew.

   • 1866, Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects, page 195:

     Bower anchors should be alike in weight; for the convenience, however, of light-handed crews, it is customary to make a very material difference between them, which is a very grave error

   • 1887, The Contributor: Representing the Young Men's and Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Associations of the Latter-day Saints, Volume 8, page 168:

     Being so lighthanded the vessel could not be properly managed and could carry but little sail, consequently her progress was but slow.

   • 1891, S.A. Hurlbut, Congressional Series of United States Public Documents, Volume 2795, page 431:

     I have therefore ordered Fuller's brigade from Memphis to Big Bear Creek, which leaves me very light-handed here.

   • 2007, Theodore Dwight, Things as They Are, →ISBN, page 64:

     I looked at the round bows of the sloop, and then at the old sails and the light-handed crew.

7. Thieving, larcenous.
   • 1817, Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy:

     Thae Hielandmen are o' the westland clans, and just as light-handed as their neighbours, an a' tales be true

   • 1822, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in The Pirate. , volume I, Edinburgh: [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 68:

     Indeed, she knew how to make young Deelbelicket, old Dougald Baresword, the Laird of Bandybrawl, and others, pay for the hospitality which she did not think proper to deny them, by rendering them useful in her negociations with the light-handed lads beyond the Cairn, who, finding their late object of plunder was allied to "kend folks, and owned by them at kirk and market," became satisfied, on a moderate yearly composition, to desist from their depredations.

   • 1862, Blackwood's Magazine, volume 91, page 313:

     He has a great many amusing episodes describing the light-handed lads from the hills coming down, and in the general confusion of the times plundering Cavalier and Covenanter alike; [...]

   • 1894, “Autumn Leaves: Worth a Guinea”, in Charles Dickens, Jr., editor, All the Year Round, page 26:

     Another of his duties was to keep a sharp look-out for light-handed customers, besides other occupations which time, as Mr. Blackley said, would teach him.

   • 1922, Van Tassel Sutphen, In Jeopardy, →ISBN:

     You understand what darkies are—as curious as magpies and quite as lighthanded. If one of them had chanced to see Effingham hiding something behind the clock, he would be sure to investigate for himself at the first convenient opportunity.

   • 1997 January, Time Carr, “Choosing A Dinghy -- The Hard Way”, in Cruising World:

     Captive rowlocks keep the oars in the boat while you 're rowing and discourage lighthanded hardware seekers when you go ashore.

8. (food) Fresh and light-tasting, not rich, heavy, or highly seasoned.
   • 2005, Fred DuBose, Evan Spingarn, Nancy Maniscalco, The Ultimate Wine Lover's Guide 2006, →ISBN, page 141:

     Lively, fresh-tasting, and light-handed in style, it pairs well with any food that likes a dry white with a bit of fruit to it, from chips 'n' dips, shrimp cocktail, and pates to entree salads and poultry.

   • 2011, Diana K. Schwam, Frommer's New Orleans, →ISBN:

     It's a sweet little bistro, a local favorite, turning out bright, lovely French/Mediterranean-influenced dishes like sautéed escargot in a Roquefort gratiné, and light-handed scallops with pea shoots and bowfin caviar.

   • 2012, Isabella Beeton, Mrs Beeton's Puddings, →ISBN:

     Fruit jellies offer an excellent, light-handed way of making vibrantly fresh desserts to round off a rich meal.

9. (obsolete) Having or requiring little strength.
   • 1845, Charles Rowcroft, Tales of the Colonies; Or, The Adventures of an Emigrant, page 93:

     December. Month for sheep-shearing. Rather light-handed for this work.

   • 1885, Michigan Dept. of Labor, Report, volume 2, page 268:

     ...are such as the cotton, woolen, and shoe factories, wherein the use of machinery has made mere human tenders of the operatives employed; or in such industries as the making of garments, wherein light-handed and comparatively unskilled labor, such as that of women and children, embodies the very worst features of an utterly selfish competition, and leaves the worker almost entirely at the mercy of "sweaters" and "middle-men."

light-handed (comparative more light-handed, superlative most light-handed)

1. Carrying very little.
   • 1824, Sir Walter Scott, Redgauntlet:

     'Are ye come light-handed, ye son of a toom whistle?' said Sir Robert. 'Zounds! if you are'

   • 1860, William Peter Strickland, Old Mackinaw, or, The fortress of the Lakes and its surroundings, page 351:

     The true state of the case is, that manufactures, as a general thing, in view of the depressed condition of the trade, have been making calculations to do a light business, and got out their logs sooner than they expected, and will on the whole do rather more than they had anticipated, having gone into the woods lighthanded.

   • 1907, Société des Américanistes, Musée de l'Homme, Proceedings, page 43:

     Sometimes, on the contrary, they are so harassed by the Blackfoot, who surprise them in the night and carry off their horses, that they are forced to return light-handed, and then they have nothing to eat but roots all the winter.

   • 1909, Annie Laurie Adams Baird, Daybreak in Korea: A Tale of Transformation in the Far East, page 113:

     The trip was to be a short one this time, and he was going lighthanded, leaving behind him the necessities of life as represented by American articles of diet.

   • 2013, Jack London, The Son of the Wolf, →ISBN:

     Though he prayed for a moose, just one moose,all game seemed to have deserted the land, and nightfall found the exhausted man crawling into camp, lighthanded, heavyhearted.

   • 2014, William Haskell, Two Years in the Klondike and Alaskan Gold Fields 1896-1898:

     Some who had sold their outfits at Skagway, and pushed on light-handed so as to get through, began to appropriate new outfits on the other side.

2. In a light-handed manner.
   • 1876, Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, a Popular Journal of General Literature, Volume 17:

     At first merely fidgety, and managed with the greatest delicacy by the English postilion, then ill-tempered and capricious, swerving from side to side, necessitating in self-defence the use of the whip—“ But only gently and light-handed, ..."

   • 1882, Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The Golden Echo”, in Robert Bridges, editor, Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Now First Published , London: Humphrey Milford, published 1918, →OCLC, page 57:

     See; not a hair is, not an eyelash, not the least lash lost; every hair
     Is, hair of the head, numbered.
     Nay, what we had lighthanded left in surly the mere mould
     Will have waked and have waxed and have walked in the wind what while we slept, […]

   • 1919, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 191, numbers 49-52, page 124:

     He must go lighthanded to whatever it was that impended.