Refine this word faster
Handy
Definitions
- 1 Easy to use, useful.
"Some people regard duct tape as a handy fix-all."
- 2 Nearby, within reach.
"You wouldn’t have a screwdriver handy, would you?"
- 3 Dexterous, skilful. (of a person)
"She's very handy: she made all her own kitchen cupboards."
- 4 Physically violent; tending to use one's fists. slang
"We had a sergeant who was a bit handy with the rougher elements. He dealt with them a little bit differently to what I do."
- 5 Of a freight ship: having a small cargo capacity (less than 40,000 DWT); belonging to the handysize class.
- 1 easy to reach wordnet
- 2 skillful with the hands wordnet
- 3 useful and convenient wordnet
- 1 A surname transferred from the nickname.
- 2 A male given name from English. rare
- 1 The hand. childish
"Clap, clap handies Mammie's wee, wee ain."
- 2 A handgun. Multicultural-London-English, slang
"Look left and right, when I cross these roads, I don’t wanna get fright We got handies and shotties, which one should you decide?"
- 3 Synonym of mobile phone.
"An important field of application for small rechargeable lithium ion batteries is that of the fast growing market of cellular phones or ‘handies’. 277,000,000 handies were sold worldwide in 1999."
- 4 A hand job. slang, vulgar
Etymology
From Middle English handy, hondi (attested in personal names), alteration of earlier hendi (“handy, skillful”), from Old English *hendiġ (“skillful”) (attested in listhendiġ (“skilled in art”)), from Proto-West Germanic *handīg, *handag, *handug, from Proto-Germanic *handugaz (“handy, skillful, nimble”), from *handuz (“hand”), equivalent to hand + -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian jäntich (“handy”), Middle Low German handich (“skillful, apt”), Middle High German handec, hendec (“manual, hand-held”), Old Norse hǫndugr (“efficient”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌿𐌲𐍃 (handugs, “wise, clever”). Akin to Dutch handig (“handy”), Norwegian hendig (“handy”), Swedish händig (“handy”).
From hand + -y (diminutive suffix).
Clipping of handgun and hand job followed by -y (diminutive suffix).
Disputed; see German Handy: according to some commentators, this meaning is originally from German (a condensed form of Handfunktelefon), whereas others claim there was an early, but now neglected, antetype of it in English (from etymology 1).
Originating as a nickname for a handy person.
See also for "handy"
Next best steps
Mini challenge
Unscramble this word: handy