Word.ws English Dictionary

cross-handed

cross-handed adjective: done with hands or forearms crossed over each other.

Adjective

cross-handed (not comparable)

  1. Done with hands or forearms crossed over each other.
    • The cross-handed grip helps in maintaining the wrist position.2013, Dan Joset, Boost Your Driving Range and Master Your Putting, →ISBN
  2. Done by crossing the hand to the other side of the body.
    • I wonder how it would be to stand right in the beginning of the fast water, at the lip of the pool, and try a cross-handed cast.2014, Gordon MacQuarrie, More Stories of the Old Duck Hunters, →ISBN
  3. Involving two opposing directions.
    • Appreciable scattering of cross-handed radiation occurred in the middle of the band, leaving regions near the long- and short-wavelength band edges in which scattering of cross-handed radiation was negligible.2011, Alexis Mendez, T. F. Morse, Specialty Optical Fibers Handbook, →ISBN, page 416
  4. (obsolete) Back-handed.
    • We believe and are thoroughly convinced that God's blessings come to his church in a cross-handed way, entirely different, in many instances, from the way we expect them.1900, Signs of the Times, and Doctrinal Advocate and Monitor, Volume 68

Adverb

cross-handed (not comparable)

  1. With hands or forearms crossed over each other.
    • Both Arnold Palmer and Gary Player have been quoted as saying that if they could change one thing about their games, they would have putted cross-handed early in their career.2009, Dr. Craig L. Farnsworth, The Putting Prescription: The Doctor's Proven Method for a Better Stroke, →ISBN, pages 42–43
  2. While crossing the hand to the other side of the body.
    • Joe got them to rig him a holster so he could draw the .45 cross-handed.2007, James Brady, Warning of War: A Novel of the North China Marines, →ISBN, page 297
  3. In two opposing directions.
    • The merchant fishermen at the falls acted as middlemen or factors, and passed the objects of traffic, as it were, cross-handed; trading away part of the wares received from the mountain tribes to those of the rivers and plains, and vice versa: […]1836 October, Washington Irving, chapter X, in Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains. […], volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: [Henry Charles] Carey, [Isaac] Lea, & Blanchard...
    • Or he can walk cross-handed following the principle of the cross-legged walk. In this variation, he can move forward, backward, or sideways.1975, Hans G. Furth, Harry Wachs, Thinking Goes to School: Piaget's Theory in Practice, →ISBN, page 79
  4. Facing forward and pushing the oars away from the body on the power stroke (rather than facing backward and pulling the oars on the power stroke).
    • Just then, a sailor, who had crossed the channel, and was making rapid headway, by rowing cross-handed, emerged from behind a merchant vessel which was moored at the wharf.1844, Rufus Dawes, Nix's Mate: An Historical Romance of America, →ISBN
  5. Idly.
    • Why do we sit cross-handed and do nothing which would serve as a basis upon which to build the salvation of our people?1978, Israel Digest - Volume 21, page 29
  6. (obsolete) Back-handedly.
    • ..the end has been answered, though the channel of conveyance has been in direct opposition to what I wanted or expected, like as Jacob in blessing Joseph's sons, he wittingly—ah it is wittingly indeed, we are blessed; namely, cross-handed.1835, The Spiritual magazine, or Saint's Treasury, Volume XI, page 305

Forms of cross-handed

alternative formcrosshanded

Origin of cross-handed

From cross + handed.

Words formed from cross-handed

Questions about cross-handed

What does cross-handed mean?
Cross-handed means done with hands or forearms crossed over each other.
What part of speech is cross-handed?
Cross-handed can be an adjective or an adverb.

Words near cross-handed in the dictionary

  1. cross-grading
  2. cross-grained
  3. cross-grainedness
  4. cross-halving joint
  5. cross-halving joints
  6. cross-handed
  7. cross-handedly
  8. cross-handedness
  9. cross-harbour
  10. cross-hatch
  11. cross-hatched

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cross-handed (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.

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