High-handedness
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The state or quality of being high-handed. uncountable
"I had had no opportunity as yet of passing on Poirot’s message to Lawrence. But now, as I strolled out on the lawn, still nursing a grudge against my friend’s high-handedness, I saw Lawrence on the croquet lawn, aimlessly knocking a couple of very ancient balls about, with a still more ancient mallet."
- 2 overbearing pride evidenced by a superior manner toward inferiors wordnet
Example
More examples"I had had no opportunity as yet of passing on Poirot’s message to Lawrence. But now, as I strolled out on the lawn, still nursing a grudge against my friend’s high-handedness, I saw Lawrence on the croquet lawn, aimlessly knocking a couple of very ancient balls about, with a still more ancient mallet."
Etymology
From high-handed + -ness.
More for "high-handedness"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.