swift-handed

Adjective

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

1. Characterized by quick, skillful movements of the hands.
   • Then as they fought on foot, fast and fiercely with their swords, Tristrem, being sorely wounded in the thigh, grew well-nigh mad with pain, and with one swift-handed heavy stroke cleft Moraunt's helmet to his skull, breaking the sword-point in his brain.1871, George W. Cox, Popular Romances of the Middle Ages, page 250
   • Indeed, so swift-handed was Arjuna that the spectators could not perceive any interval between his taking up an arrow, and fixing it on the bow-string, and letting it off by a stretch of the Gāndiva!1886, The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa - Volume 4, page 158
2. (idiomatic) Quick to respond or react.
   • But, in the simple questions submitted to the Peruvian judge, delay would have been useless; and the Spaniards, familiar with the evils growing out of long-protracted suits, where the successful litigant is too often a ruined man, are loud in their encomiums of this swift-handed and economical...1847, William H. Prescott, The History Of The Conquest Of Peru
   • So, in this country, corruption or maladministration in judicial procedure would be followed by swift-handed retribution1890, The Atlantic Monthly - Volume 66, page 673