backhanded
/ˈbækˌhændəd/
backhanded adjective: with the back of the hand. Also the simple past and past participle of backhand.
Adjective
backhanded (comparative more backhanded, superlative most backhanded)
- With the back of the hand.
- The trader roars like an animal whose paw has been caught in a trap, but he hauls back his other arm and lands a backhanded blow to the side of her head that knocks her sideways onto the babushki bench.2010, Byrna Barclay, Jack Hodgins, The Forest Horses: A Novel, →ISBN, page 178
- Involving a backward flip of the hand.
- Some casters can do a cross-body or backhanded cast quite effectively.2014, Rick Kustich, Advanced Fly Fishing for Great Lakes Steelhead, →ISBN, page 42
- With your palm facing down, your wrist snaps forward. This is the same type of motion used for the backhanded change-up.2009, Winning Softball for Girls, Facts On File, Incorporated, →ISBN, page 139
- Insincere, sarcastic, ironic, or self-contradictory.
- But modesty here is out of the question, and is often the most beggarly and back-handed friend that merit can have in its pay.1817 [1756], William Godwin, Mandeville: A Tale of the Seventeenth Century in England, volume 2, London: Archibald Constable and Co., page 180
- Don't mistake this for even a backhanded compliment; that at least takes a wry sense of imagination. This is a patronizing compliment, which is worse than no compliment at all.2007, Mark Wiskup, The It Factor: Be the One People Like, Listen To, and Remember, →ISBN, page 116
- Indirect.
- Only in grade 5 is he mentioned and in this backhanded way: "George Darwin, son of the famous English scientist, Charles Darwin." . . . But for what is Charles Darwin famous? You won't find it in the California elementary science textbooks.1988, Thomas F. Glick, The Comparative Reception of Darwinism, →ISBN, page 479
- ClickStart could be seen as a backhanded way of admitting that, to date, the Internet had done exceedingly well by white people as compared to black;2002, Sara Miles, How to Hack a Party Line: The Democrats and Silicon Valley, →ISBN, page 233
- Backwards, turned around.
- No one ever believed that Leif meant any harm, but all the luck he brought was backhanded.2000, Margaret Elphinstone, The Sea Road, →ISBN, page 98
- ... it joins Clark fork twenty miles farther on, at the second apex of a sharp backhanded turn or zigzag by which this river shifts from one northwestward course to another...1920, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Volume 10
- inclining to the left
- In this particular instance the writing begins backhanded, and there is a reversion to the right-handed type, -- an unconscious reversion, which makes me think that is the natural method of writing;1907, The Official Report of the Trial of Charles Louis Tucker for the Murder of Mabel Page: In the Superior Court of Massachusetts, Volume 1
- Retrospective, occurring after the fact rather than in advance.
- ...but that is really a backhanded rent, because I have sold all the produce of my farm six months before I am called upon to pay the last six months' rent.1869, Great Britain Parliament House of Commons, House of Commons Papers - Volume 9, page 134
- The Mutazilīs, in a counterpolemic, allege that the argument advanced by the Asharīs is implicitly a backhanded and retrospective way of imputing heresy to the early community of believers.2006, Ebrahim Moosa, Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination, →ISBN, page 196
- Self-serving, corrupt, slipshod, or neglectful.
- Perhaps omitting Weber from footnotes is intended to avenge his backhanded treatment of the American Puritans (and by extension their academic champions), whom he virtually ignored—albeit with unhappy consequences for his own work.2005, David J. Libby, Paul Spickard, Susan Ditto, Affect and Power: Essays on Sex, Slavery, Race, and Religion, →ISBN, page 170
- His backhanded way of analyzing values means that there could be no systematic treatment of the functional consequences for behavior of specific ideas, values, and idea-value complexes.1998, Daniel W. Rossides, Social Theory: Its Origins, History, and Contemporary Relevance, →ISBN, page 178
Adverb
backhanded (comparative more backhanded, superlative most backhanded)
- In a backhanded manner.
- As the man crumpled forward, Snow took a further step with his right foot and brought the pole down backhanded with all his power into the right side of the man's head.2008, Maclean J. Storer, Forward O Peasant, →ISBN, page 279
- Then with her curved hand knife, she proceeded to clean the selected sprouts, flipping them backhanded into the top crate on her left when done.2010, Ivano Franco Comelli, La Nostra Costa (Our Coast): A Family's Journey to and from the North Coast of Santa Cruz, California (1923-1983), →ISBN, page 58
Also used as
backhanded is also the simple past and past participle of backhand.
Examples of backhanded in a sentence
- Radio Savant wrote two other commercials filled with sarcasm, one of them entitled "Apology." In it, announcer Morris offers a backhanded apology that allows him to say ...."2002, Larry Oakner, And Now a Few Laughs from Our Sponsor: The Best of Fifty Years of Radio Commercials, →ISBN:
- But on this particular occasion I was fired on as an individual by an entire battery of enemy artillery, and for some odd and backhanded reason I felt important.2008, R. Richard Kingsbury, The Eighteen-Year-Old Replacement: Facing Combat in Patton's Third Army, →ISBN, page 104:
- In America today, most Wire Eye Splices are made backhanded.1944, Clifford Warren Ashley, The Ashley Book of Knots, page 310:
Forms of backhanded
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more backhanded |
| superlative | most backhanded |
| alternative form | back-handed |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more backhanded |
| superlative | most backhanded |
Origin of backhanded
From back + hand + -ed.
Words formed from backhanded
Phrases with backhanded
Questions about backhanded
- What does backhanded mean?
- Backhanded means with the back of the hand.
- How do you use backhanded in a sentence?
- Radio Savant wrote two other commercials filled with sarcasm, one of them entitled "Apology." In it, announcer Morris offers a backhanded apology that allows him to say ...."
- What part of speech is backhanded?
- Backhanded can be an adjective or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce backhanded?
- Backhanded is pronounced /ˈbækˌhændəd/.
Words near backhanded in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: backhanded (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-backhanded.ogg.
Cite this entry: “backhanded.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/backhanded. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.