# handed

Pronunciation: US say "HAN-duhd" /ˈhændəd/; UK say "HAN-did" /ˈhændɪd/

## Verb

1. Simple past and past participle of hand. — simple past and past participle of hand
   - Simple: Past tense and past participle of hand. Use this form when you talk about giving something to someone before now.
   - _The clerk handed each applicant a numbered slip._
   - _By dawn the keys had been handed to the new owners._

## Adjective

2. Having hands of a specified kind, or a specified number of hands.
   - Simple: Having a certain number or kind of hands.
   - _Ancient depictions of certain deities show them as many-handed, with arms fanning out in all directions._
   - _She was born left-handed and never adjusted to right-handed scissors._
3. Having a peculiar or characteristic manner of treating or dealing with other people.
   - Simple: Having a particular way of dealing with or treating other people.
   - _Critics called the government's response heavy-handed and out of proportion._
   - _She praised the mediator for being scrupulously even-handed throughout the dispute._
4. Existing in one of two mirror-image forms that cannot be superimposed on each other; chiral. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Having a shape that cannot match its own mirror image, like your left and right hands.
   - _Chemists describe the compound as handed because it cannot be laid over its own reflection._
   - _Quartz crystals are handed, growing in left- and right-rotating forms._

## Adjective

5. Joined hand in hand, with hands clasped together. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Holding hands, with two people joined hand in hand.

## Origin

Formed from hand combined with the suffix -ed.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/handed (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).