BACKHANDED • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Backhanded

Translators

Dictionaries

Courses

Other

Home

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/bˈækhˌændəd/ /bˈækhˌændɪd/ Listen

Backhanded

adjective

(of racket strokes) made across the body with back of hand facing direction of stroke. Synonym: backhand.

Roundabout or ambiguous. "A backhanded and dishonest way of reaching his goal"

See images of 'Backhanded'

Etymology of 'Backhanded'

Share |

"Backhanded" Quotes from Famous Books

... steady light all around him issued from stark gray walls. He lay on his back in an empty cell-room. And he'd better be on the move before Darfu comes to enforce a rising order with a powerful kick or one of these backhanded blows which the Salarkian used to reduce ...

— Star Hunter • Andre Alice Norton

... not think it consistent with the office he held, which required self-denial and a renouncing of the world. As to how he could live on so small a sum, that was a question rarely asked; and when presented, was put to rest by some backhanded kind of an answer, that left the matter as much in the dark ...

— The Lights and Shadows of Real Life • T.S. Arthur

... too fulsome for French gallantry to invent finding space in the foremost French newspapers; hoping, praying, beseeching the help of Russia, when Germany makes up her mind to gobble France, yet dealing Russian achievement a backhanded slap by hinting what a compliment it is for a cultivated, accomplished, over-cultured race like the French to beg the assistance of a barbarous ...

— As Seen By Me • Lilian Bell

... believed, Signor Jupe was that afternoon to 'elucidate the diverting accomplishments of his highly trained performing dog Merrylegs.' He was also to exhibit 'his astounding feat of throwing seventy-five hundred-weight in rapid succession backhanded over his head, thus forming a fountain of solid iron in mid-air, a feat never before attempted in this or any other country, and which having elicited such rapturous plaudits from enthusiastic throngs it cannot be withdrawn.' ...

— Hard Times • Charles Dickens*

... started, struck the Frenchman a backhanded blow on the chest, which hurled him violently against the man at the wheel, and, bending down, sprang with a wild shout into ...

— The Lighthouse • R.M. Ballantyne

Words linked to "Backhanded" : backhand, indirect, forehand