large-handedadj.adv.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Timon of Athens (1623) iv. i. 11 Large-handed Robbers your graue Masters are. View more context for this quotation

1803 G. Mason Life Richard Earl Howe 98 I say not, that so renowned a general meant to flee from his standard, or to leave the poor deserted accomplices of any large-handed robber to an imminent execution.

1886 Standard (Clarksville, Texas) 9 Apr. 4/2 No considerable portion of the American people would care a cent if some large handed burglar should get hold of every dollar of Jay Gould's money and confiscate it.

1907 E. Hough Story of Outlaw xi. 163 There had now grown up an armed and legal warfare between the cow men themselves—in the first place very large-handed thieves—and the rustlers.

1925 R. V. Merrill Platonism of Joachim du Bellay ii. 41 Du Bellay, in his early work a large-handed pilferer from the Italians, took his most famous sonnet almost word for word from Bernardino Daniello.

a1628 [implied in: F. Greville Life of Sidney (1651) xvi. 208 Shee watched over the nimble Spirits, selfe-seeking or large handednesse of her active Secretaries. (at large-handedness n. at Derivatives)].

1640 D. Featley et al. Θρηνοικος xxxix. 794 She was not straightned in her bowels towards them, but was large hearted, and large handed, full of Almes, when that might helpe.

c1660 R. Carpenter Pragmatical Jesuit iii. ii. 23/2 Who is so large-handed and boundless in his Entertainments, the Lord Liberal?

1682 T. Southerne Loyal Brother iv. i. 38 Tho nature plays the prodigal, and gives Large handed, what our boundless wishes crave.

1843 Metropolitan May 18 Pride is the one engrossing passion of his nature; the pride of high estate, of a lordly line, of ancestral honours, of kingly favour, of large-handed liberality.

1884 M. A. Martin Our Maoris 24 We were doubly anxious to be liberal after hearing a very good-tempered Maori man contrast the large-handed hospitality of his people to English travellers.

1913 Our Paper 8 Nov. 534/1 With the largehanded liberality of an idealist, the count [sc. Tolstoi] decreed that his literary works should be a gift to humanity.

1958 Leader-Times (Kittanning, Pa.) 13 Nov. 6/8 ‘Would you hesitate to take the boy?’ ‘No,’ he said. ‘and not because I'm large-handed either.’

1712 M. Henry Expos. Prophetical Bks. Old Test. ( Isa. xl. 12) sig. P4/2 The great God metes the Heavens with a Span; to him they are but a Hand-breadth, so large-handed is he.

1860 O. W. Holmes Professor at Breakfast-table iv. 117 That straight, coarse, brown hair which sets off the sharp faces of so many thin-flanked, large-handed bumpkins.

1896 O. Schreiner in Fortn. Rev. Aug. 233 They [sc. Boers] are generally large-limbed, large-handed men.

1906 E. P. Evans Criminal Prosecution & Capital Punishment of Animals ii. 217 In the literal sense of the terms a large-brained man is not necessarily of superior intellectual power any more than..a large-handed man instinctively grasping.

1983 E. Hoffman Hands iv. 39 While a small-handed person is characterized by the power of single-minded concentration, the lifestyle of the large-handed person is often that of diffused energy.

2011 E. Ottenberg Widow's Opera i. 50 Only when he had drunk himself sober did this bulky, large-handed athlete become truly dangerous.

a1628 F. Greville Life of Sidney (1651) xvi. 208 Shee watched over the nimble Spirits, selfe-seeking or large handednesse of her active Secretaries.

1862 Christian Remembrancer Oct. 465 They now give with shame and self-abasement, yet with the large-handedness of love.

1968 Billings (Montana) Gaz. 8 Nov. 12/3 A sense of growth, of pride, of something fought for and won, a large-handedness.

2006 L. Bevan Worshippers & Warriors iii. 52/2 The large-handedness of the supine figure on the Great Rock at Naquane perhaps denotes her passage into a more spiritually-powerful state.