Uphanded

adj, verb

adj, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    simple past and past participle of uphand form-of, participle, past
Adjective
  1. 1
    With hands held up or characterised by raising of hands.

    "For, as it regards myself, I confess, with humility, that in the earliest stage of my career I was the uphanded wonder of gossips even at my christening, and though only a few months old, (I was born in the longest day), I was considered a child of larger growth than any other of equal age, which made the vicar exclaim -- "Quae monstrant ipsi puer-is.""

  2. 2
    Overbearing.

    "Furthermore such an attitude becomes an abuse of the strong against the weak, exactly in the uphanded attitude adopted by Germany towards heroic Belgium, when she violated the latter's rights which were guaranteed by a Treaty."

Example

More examples

"For, as it regards myself, I confess, with humility, that in the earliest stage of my career I was the uphanded wonder of gossips even at my christening, and though only a few months old, (I was born in the longest day), I was considered a child of larger growth than any other of equal age, which made the vicar exclaim -- "Quae monstrant ipsi puer-is.""

Etymology

From up + handed.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.