one-handed

• onehanded

From Middle English on-handed, variant of Middle English on-hande, onehand, from Old English ān-hende (“one-handed”). By surface analysis, one +‎ handed. Compare German einhändig (“one-handed”), Swedish enhänt, en-handad (“one-handed”), Icelandic einn-hönd (“one-handed”).

one-handed (not comparable)

1. Having only one hand.
   • 2012, Carrie Weaver, Temporary Nanny, →ISBN:

     And who said the one-handed guy couldn't be self-sufficient? Certainly not his physical therapist, Gus, who led him to believe he'd be as good as new with a spaceage prosthesis and a crapload of physical and occupational therapy.

   • 1995, Alfred L. Horowitz, MRI Physics for Radiologists, →ISBN:

     Note that we can represent any cyclic event with a one-handed clock.

2. Performed using only one hand.
   • 2011 September 24, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 3 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC Sport‎:

     A one-handed save by Wojciech Szczesny prevented Darren Pratley giving Bolton an early lead and Arsenal looked short of ideas in a goalless first half.

   • 2012, Joey Rive, Scott C. Williams, Tennis Skills & Drills, →ISBN:

     If either movement or speed around the court is a weakness, the one-handed backhand may be the best choice because of the extra reach.

3. Designed for use with one hand
   • 2012, Theodore Ayrault Dodge, Alexander: A History of the Origin and Growth of the Art of War from the Earliest Times to the Battle of Ipsus, B.C. 301, With a Detailed Account of the Campaigns of the Great Macedonian, →ISBN:

     The hoplites were pezetæri, the sarissa-armed, and hypaspists, a more select body, aimed with one-handed pike, sword and shield.

   1. (specifically, of reading or reading material) Pornographic in nature.
      • 2007, Neil Pearson, Obelisk: A History of Jack Kahane and the Obelisk Press, Liverpool University Press, →ISBN, page 401:

        ... Boy's sexual content mostly consists of a series of violent and less than titillating homosexual assaults. Word of mouth among the one-handed readership would not have been good.

      • 2012, Todd A. Comer, Joseph Michael Sommers, Sexual Ideology in the Works of Alan Moore: Critical Essays on the Graphic Novels, McFarland, →ISBN, page 146:

        “If it failed for me, it was only as smut; the book, at least in large black and white photocopy form, was not a one-handed read.

4. That uses one hand.
   • 2015, William Hamilton, My Sixty Years on the Plains: Trapping, Trading, and Indian Fighting, →ISBN:

     The one-handed shooter, the target man who fires the national match course, turns about 45 degrees from the target, separates his feet about the same distance, fully extends his hand, locking the elbow, and with head and body erect looks over the sights.

5. Involving the actions of only one person.
   • 2011, Ralph & Phyllis Nansen, Stone Boat Odyssey, →ISBN, page 251:

     I don't think she knew what a relief that was, because I would have been poor help for Ralph as a one-handed crew.

   • 1884, Good Words Volume 25, page 67:

     Holding intercourse with Sir William at this date partook a good deal of the nature of a one-handed conversation, and the one-handedness seemed to increase when the only share of the host, in the post-prandial conviviality, consisted in passing the decanters, which Sir William was scrupulous to do.

6. (chemistry) Chiral, having an asymmetric structural orientation.
   • 2010 November, PD Barata, AI Costa, LFV Ferreira, JV Prata, “Synthesis, structure, and optical properties of an alternating calix [4] arene-based meta-linked phenylene ethynylene copolymer”, in Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry, volume 48, number 22, page 5040:

     Because of the m-phenylene linkage along the polymer main chain, the inherent propensity to generate foldamers has been explored in several ways, and the induction of one-handed polymer helicity been achieved.

one-handed (not comparable)

1. Using only one hand; one-handedly.

   She waved to us and lost her balance; riding a bicycle one-handed is tricky.

   • 2014, Jan-Philipp Sendker, A Well-Tempered Heart, →ISBN:

     She fanned the fire one-handed, cooked, swept the yard, pulled weeds out of the tomato beds, washed longyis and towels, and even developed a technique to wring them out one-handed—all because she did not want to put her son down.

   • 2012, Linda MacDonald, A Meeting of a Different Kind, →ISBN:

     Felicity prepares him meals he can eat one-handed, and when they have a roast, she cuts up the meat into bite-sized portions as she once did for the children.

   • 2010, Tom Clancy, Patriot Games:

     Doing it half-drunk wasn't all that hard. Doing it one-handed was hard but not insurmountable. Doing it one-handed and half-drunk was...The damned screws didn't want to stay in the plastic, and the instructions for putting a V-8 engine together had to be easier than this!

2. (figuratively) Very easily, without effort.

   He's a terrible snooker player. I could beat him one-handed!

   • 2000, Rigby, The runaway ball, →ISBN, page 5:

     That's when Brandon noticed the five kids were laughing at him. "Are you the best player in Springton?" asked one. "Hah! We could beat you one-handed!" shouted another. "We could beat you blindfolded!" said a third.

   • 1994, Stephen Leather, Bill Grose, The Vets, →ISBN, page 48:

     This isn't going to be a competition, College Boy. It's going to be a walkover. I could beat you one-handed.

   • 2000, Nora Roberts, Heart of the Sea: The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy #3, →ISBN, page 93:

     As rough as you look 'round the edges this morning, I could take you one-handed. Seriously, you can go into the kitchen and have your coffee in peace and in quiet.

• nonheaded