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ambidexter, a. and n.|ˌæmbɪˈdɛkstə(r)|
Also 6–8 ambodexter.
[a. med.L. ambidexter (used in senses 2, 3), f. amb(i)- both, on both sides + dexter right-handed. In 17th c. generally spelt ambodexter, after L. ambo both.]
A. adj.
1. lit. Right-handed on both sides, able to use the left hand as well as the right.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 191 So may Aristotle say, that only man is Ambidexter. 1751Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) IV. xcix. 292 Being ambi-dexter, he raised..a clatter upon the turnkey's blind side. 1880Blackmore M. Anerley II. xvi. 283 With his left hand, for he was ambidexter..he caught up a handspike.
2. Double-dealing; practising on both sides.
1613Sir H. Finch Law (1636) 186 To call..an Attornie Ambodexter, or to say that he dealeth corruptly. 1624E. S. in Shaks. Cent. Praise 154 These ambi-dexter Gibionites. 1705Hickeringill Priest-cr. i. (1721) 44 Nor Ambodexter Lawyers take a Fee On both sides. 1856Dove Logic Chr. Faith i. ii. ii. §2. 94 Tortuous and ambidexter sophistries.
3. Of or belonging to both hands or sides; two-sided.
1806W. Taylor Ann. Rev. IV. 228 Posted by double entry with the ambidexter formality of an Italian ledger. 1839Sir J. Stephen Ess. Eccl. Biog. (1850) II. 37 An ambidexter controversialist, the English Church warred at once with the errors of Rome and of Geneva.
B. n. [The adj. used absol.]
1. One who uses the left hand as well as the right; hence fig. a man of unusual dexterity.
1598Florio Ded. 1 If we be not ambidexters, vsing both handes alike. 1615Crooke Body of Man 732 A woman, saith Hipocrates, cannot be an ambidexter. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Surgeons and oculists are of necessity obliged to be Ambidexters.
2. Law. One who takes bribes from both sides. (The earliest sense in Eng.)
1532Use of Dice Play (1850) 17 Any affinity with our men of law?..Never with those that be honest. Marry! with such as be ambidexters, and use to play in both the hands. 1652E. Benlowes Theoph. xiii. xviii. 238 From costly bills of greedy Emp'ricks free, From plea of Ambo-dexters fee. 1691Blount Law Dict., Ambidexter..in the legal acception..That Juror or Embraceor who takes Money on both sides for giving his Verdict. 1809[So in Tomlins.]
3. A double-dealer, a two-faced actor, generally.
a1555Ridley Wks. 27 They may be called neutrals, ambi⁓dexters, or rather such as can shift on both sides. 1599Peele Sir Clyomon Wks. III. 44 Such shifting knaves as I am the ambodexter must play. 1628Wither Brit. Rememb. iv. 825 In this Battell I espy'd Some Ambodexters, fight on either side. 1703De Foe Ref. Manners 93 Those Ambo-Dexters in Religion, who Can any thing dispute, yet any thing can do. 1864Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. III. 278 An Ambidexter, owing fealty to both Counts and not faithful to either. |