right and leftadv.adj.n.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 21639 (MED) Ouer and vnder, right and left, In þis compas godd all has left.

1634 T. Fisher Warlike Direct. 47 Halfe the rankes wheele to the right, and halfe to the left hand: then facing right and left, are become two Ranks.

1635 W. Barriffe Mil. Discipline vi. 22 Files open right and left to your order.

1737 Med. Ess. & Observ. (Philos. Soc. Edinb.) (ed. 2) III. 188 Suspend by a Thread a Ring, so as its Side may be towards you and its Hole look right and left.

1772 G. A. Stevens Songs Comic & Satyrical lxvii. 124 Arrang'd right and left in support of the Chair, We'll Chorus our Song as the circling Toast passes.

1823 P. Nicholson New Pract. Builder 408 Two broad pieces of lead..are attached to the back lap-joints and spread out, right and left, for fastening the [socket] pipes to the wall.

1829 Examiner 196/1 He would lay about him right and left, what havoc he would make!

1836 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers (1837) x. 92 Having officiously deposited the gentleman's boots right and left at his feet, and the lady's shoes right and left at hers, he backed towards the door.

1855 C. Kingsley Westward Ho! xxv. 436 The Spaniards recoiled right and left.

1916 P. B. Kyne Cappy Ricks x. 67 Matt Peasley ripped left and right, right and left into Ole Peterson's dish face.

1972 G. M. Brown Greenvoe (1976) ii. 54 He looked right and left, then quickly furled his umbrella and turned and came into the bar.

2000 G. Lucas Star Wars Episode I: Phantom Menace 73 (stage direct.) Anakin is powering around corners and over hills and cliffs, passing other racers right and left.

1789 Ld. Bulkeley Let. 27 Apr. in Duke of Buckingham Mem. Court & Cabinets George III (1853) II. 153 The report of the journey to Hanover prevails to an alarming degree, and the King talks of it right hand and left.]

1822 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 12 57 Acting on the principle of the general jackassification of mankind,..he abuses them right and left.

1839 F. Hastings Let. 8 Mar. in R. B. Martin Enter Rumour 51 I wished you to know the truth..and you are welcome to tell it right and left.

1873 ‘M. Twain’ & C. D. Warner Gilded Age 319 You still begin to squander a fortune right and left.

1876 C. Schreiber Jrnl. 26 July (1911) I. 472 Froeschel, of Hamburg, was there buying right and left.

1884 G. Meredith Let. 13 May (1970) II. 735 I am now rejecting kind invitations right and left, for I see I shall not be released before the first or second week of next month.

1893 F. F. Moore Gray Eye or So II. 221 He is being robbed right and left.

1912 T. Dreiser Financier xxx. 341 The stocks had been unloaded freely right and left.

1962 P. Gregory Like Tigress at Bay xiv. 142 Rudy was there now, smirking, bowing to the customers, giving orders right and left.

1996 F. McCourt Angela's Ashes (1997) xv. 366 She'll be able to get a job in a country that's at war especially with Yanks pouring in and spending money right and left.

1611 T. Farnaby in T. Coryate Crudities sig. g4^v Whence with wing-footed speede making returne, all His right and left aduentures in this journall Hath Gobled vp in hast.

1854 S. P. Woodward Man. Mollusca ii. 280 They are essentially unsymmetrical, and right-and-left valved.

1863 W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting viii. 342 I missed having an excellent right-and-left shot at wild dogs this morning.

1871 Figure Training 117 Comfort..is easily attained by wearing right and left stockings and boots made on strictly anatomical principles.

1910 T. V. Moore in Univ. Calif. Publ. Psychol. 1 132 This involved perhaps a single glance, which was an up and down movement of the eye, or a right and left movement or a rotation of the eyeball.

1970 J. W. Jones Squaredance Fund. 182/1 Although Right and Left Grand..is a noun title for a maneuver, it very often is used as a call directing the dancers to perform a maneuver. When the caller uses it in that way, he really is saying ‘[Do a] right and left grand.’

1998 N. Jotcham tr. P. Mérimée Carmen & Other Stories 261 ‘They fired first,’ said Orso. ‘So they did, I was forgetting. First “pop!, pop!”, then “boom!, boom!”. A right-and-left shot, one-handed.’

1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory (1905) iii. xix. 154/2 The maner of which [drum] beatings is performed by single and double, quick and slow, down right and rowling blows, for which they haue these termes. A Roofe. A Rowle. A right and left. A Flam, [etc.]

1833 P. Hawker Instr. to Young Sportsmen (ed. 7) 238 Have a right and left at them with your popgun as they come up after diving.

1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Man. Brit. Rural Sports i. i. v. 52/1 In many cases very wild birds will allow him to come up and get ‘a right and left’.

1886 Pall Mall Gaz. 27 Aug. 5/1 With single ‘right-and-lefts’, however, our crack marksmen are no longer inclined to rest content.

1902 Recreation Oct. 265/2 With a right and left I dropped them within 40 yards of each other, both cocks, in the pink of condition.

1978 R. V. Jones Most Secret War xli. 390 I felt that we had achieved one of the best ‘right and lefts’ of all time by picking out the 14th and 15th Companies.

2002 K. Farrell in U. Böker et al. Importance of reinventing Oscar 52 Clouston..brings off a right-and-left, killing both Vane and a hare with one shot.

1887 V. L. Cameron Jack Hooper xxi. 228 This time he was not allowed to come to close quarters, but was stopped with a right and left full in the face.

1907 G. Siler Inside Facts on Pugilism 178 Bob then sent in a right and left to the face, which jarred Jim, and then a left stiff uppercut.

1928 Hartford (Connecticut) Courant 3 Aug. 14/6 Loayza landed a feeble left to the jaw and a right and left to the head as the bell ended the session.

1982 Times 15 Feb. 19/7 Williams twice had Ocasio in trouble after solid right and lefts to the head but never appeared capable of putting his opponent down.

2009 B. Paxton Fearless Harry Greb ix. 119 Tunney..threw a right to Greb's stomach. Greb returned this with a right and left to the face.

1821 Edinb. Philos. Jrnl. 5 130 A nut v, having a right and left screw, is employed to adjust the length of the rod k.

1877 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 288 Through these the coal is forced by a right-and-left screw.

2003 E. N. Ganic & T. G. Hicks McGraw-Hill's Engin. Compan. xiii. 13.11 All ordinary threads are right hand; seldom is there need for a left-hand screw in fastening, but the turnbuckle in Fig. 13.37 is a conspicuous example of the right-and-left screw.