Word.ws English Dictionary

open-handed

open-handed adjective: done with the hand open rather than clenched. Also the simple past and past participle of open-hand.

Adjective

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

  1. Done with the hand open rather than clenched
    • Hitters use the open-handed tip to try to softly place the ball over the blockers or into other open areas of the opponent's court.2007, American Sport Education Program, Coaching Youth Volleyball, →ISBN
    • Visual gaze toward the mother was present with the children's earliest gestures, but only in those cases where the gesture was itself directed toward the mother, such as extending objects toward the mother or open-handed reaching or pointing toward objects held by the mother.2012, Virginia Volterra, Carol J. Erting, From Gesture to Language in Hearing and Deaf Children, →ISBN
  2. Liberal and generous.
    • 'No, no,' said the undertaker; 'not an open-handed gentleman in general, by any means. There you mistake him; but an afflicted gentleman, an affectionate gentleman, who knows what it is in the power of money to do, in giving him relief, and in testifying his love and veneration for the departed.'1844, Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit
    • "I'll do the old gorilla the justice to say that he is open-handed with money."1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed
  3. Frank, honest, and tolerant.
    • Despite Gustavus' open-handed dealing, many princes of Europe did not trust him.2012, Theodore Ayrault Dodge, Gustavus Adolphus, →ISBN
  4. Characterized by looseness and fullness.
    • She sat there for more than three hours, as sheet after sheet became covered with her open-handed writing.2011, Faith Mortimer, The Assassins' Village

Adverb

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

  1. With an open hand or hands.
    • Winding their way to the land of snow and ice they saw approaching a band of warriors covered with emblems of peace,and, leaving their stony weapons in care of the younger braves, they walked open-handed to meet the strangers.1884, Owahyah, Birch Bark Legends of Niagara, →ISBN
    • Open-handed, he walked steadily down the slope, stepping over the crumpled bodies on the blood-damp grass.2014, Ian Ross, War at the Edge of the World, →ISBN
  2. Generously.
    • The money here was given open-handed, and Parliament was not to be informed what was to be done with it.1876, Thomas Curson Hansard, Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, page 28

Also used as

open-handed is also the simple past and past participle of open-hand.

Synonyms of open-handed

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of open-handed

Adjective
comparativemore open-handed
superlativemost open-handed
alternative formopenhanded
Adverb
comparativemore open-handed
superlativemost open-handed

Origin of open-handed

From open + handed.

Words formed from open-handed

Questions about open-handed

What does open-handed mean?
Open-handed means done with the hand open rather than clenched.
What part of speech is open-handed?
Open-handed can be an adjective or an adverb.

Words near open-handed in the dictionary

  1. open-field system
  2. open-field systems
  3. open-field test
  4. open-field tests
  5. open-hand
  6. open-handed
  7. open-handedly
  8. open-handedness
  9. open-handing
  10. open-hands
  11. open-heart surgeries

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: open-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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Cite this entry: “open-handed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/open-handed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.