Backhandedness
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The quality of being backhanded; The use of a backward flip of the hand. uncountable
"Bjorn Borg, 18, wins French, and the three of them change the game, guiding the world to two-fisted backhandedness."
- 2 The quality of being backhanded; Insincerity, irony, or sarcasm. uncountable
"The backhandedness of the compliment suddenly struck him, and he squeezed his eyes shut at the gaffe."
- 3 The quality of being backhanded; Indirection. uncountable
"The backhandedness of this procedure reflects the fact that null hypothesis tests are motivated by rhetorical considerations."
- 4 The quality of being backhanded; Leftward slant. uncountable
"If it is, as one supposes, the same scribe who wrote the verso, his backhandedness had been cured by putting the tablet in a better position."
- 5 The quality of being backhanded; Backwardness of direction. uncountable
"It would be easy to draw a popular conclusion that this backhandedness of the language proves the backwardness of their civilization, and the fact that the Turk ought to go way back and sit down in remote Asia"
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- 6 The quality of being backhanded; Deceit or neglect. uncountable
"Russell's clandestine attempt to initiate diplomatic contact with the Confederacy left an image of backhandedness that substantiated Seward's direst premonitions about British self-interest."
Example
More examples"Bjorn Borg, 18, wins French, and the three of them change the game, guiding the world to two-fisted backhandedness."
Etymology
From backhanded + -ness.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.