Hardhanded
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Forceful, excessive, draconian, or abusive.
"'Tis the cruel gripe, / That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts, / The hope of better things, the chance to win, / The wiſh to ſhine, the thirſt to be amus'd, / That at the found of Winter's hoary wing, / Unpeople all our counties, of ſuch herds, / Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, looſe, / And wanton vagrants, as make London, vaſt / And boundless as it is, a crowded coop."
- 2 Working-class; having hands hardened from labor.
"To deliver out of that Egyptian bondage to Wretchedness, and Ignorance, and Sin, the hardhanded millions, of whom this hardhanded, earnest witness, and writer, is here representative."
Example
More examples"'Tis the cruel gripe, / That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts, / The hope of better things, the chance to win, / The wiſh to ſhine, the thirſt to be amus'd, / That at the found of Winter's hoary wing, / Unpeople all our counties, of ſuch herds, / Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, looſe, / And wanton vagrants, as make London, vaſt / And boundless as it is, a crowded coop."
Etymology
From hard + handed, from the firmness of a strike with the hand or the hardness of calluses on a laborer's hands.
Related phrases
More for "hardhanded"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.