handy

Formshandier, handiest

Pluralhandies

1. 1
   adjective

   Easy to use; useful.

   The app proved handy for splitting the bill among friends.

   A lighter laptop is handier for travel than a desktop computer.

   Similaruseful, convenient, helpful, practical

   Oppositeuseless, inconvenient, impractical

   Note

   Despite appearances, the adjective is not simply hand plus -y. It continues Middle English hendi, "handy, skillful," from Old English *hendiġ, which survives in listhendiġ, "skilled in art." The sense of usefulness sits close to the "skillful" meaning: a handy fix is one that serves the hand well. It compares regularly, handier and handiest.

2. 2
   adjective

   Nearby; within easy reach.

   She keeps a notebook handy during interviews in case a good quote lands.

   The cabin is handy to the lake, just a short walk through the pines.

   Similarnearby, close, accessible, convenient, available

   Oppositeinaccessible, remote, distant

   Note

   Here the word usually follows its noun: you keep a first-aid kit handy, or have a screwdriver handy. In that position it does the same work as at hand, on hand and to hand, and any of them can replace it. Placed before a noun, handy tends to read as the "useful" meaning, so position is what signals nearness.

3. 3
   adjective

   Of a person, dexterous or skillful in manual work.

   She's remarkably handy and rebuilt the entire porch over a single weekend.

   He's handier with an engine than most professional mechanics.

   Similarskillful, dexterous, adept, capable, deft

   Oppositeclumsy, inept, awkward

   Note

   The skill meaning is the old core of the word. It comes through Middle English hendi from an Old English word for "skillful", and ultimately from a Germanic root meaning "handy, skillful, nimble". Said of a person, it praises practical, hands-on ability, like building cupboards or fixing an engine. It often takes with plus the tool or task: handy with a saw, handy with an engine.

4. 4
   adjectiveslang

   Quick to resort to violence, especially to using one's fists.

   The bouncer ejected a customer who got handy with the waitstaff.

   Witnesses said the suspect turned handy when officers tried to cuff him.

   Similarviolent, rough, physical

   Note

   A slang use that likes understatement. A sergeant is "a bit handy with the rougher elements" in William Purcell's British Police in a Changing Society (1974), and a suspect "got a bit handy" when cornered. It takes with before whoever is on the receiving end, and get or be before it. It suits reported speech about violence, not formal accounts.

5. 5
   nounslangvulgarcountable

   An act of manually stimulating a partner's genitals; a hand job.

   Half the rumors at school that spring were about who had given someone a handy.

   The film's most awkward scene involves a handy interrupted by a ringing phone.

   Note

   Vulgar slang built the same way as the slang word for a handgun: hand job is clipped and given a -y. The usual frame is give someone a handy. It is a word for joking among peers and never for clinical or polite use. Wristy covers the same ground in the same low register.

6. 6
   nounchildishcountable

   The hand.

   She traced the baby's handy in crayon for the birthday card.

   He wiped his sticky handies on a napkin before dessert.

   Similarhand

   Note

   Nursery talk: hand plus the diminutive -y, unrelated to the adjective despite the shared spelling. It lives in rhymes and clapping games, as in "Clap, clap handies" from Blanche Fisher Wright's The Real Mother Goose (1916), and is most natural in the plural, handies, said to or about a small child. Outside that setting it sounds deliberately babyish.

7. 7
   noundialectalMulticultural London Englishcountable

   A handgun.

   The detective bagged the handy as evidence at the scene.

   He kept a handy tucked in his waistband whenever he made a delivery.

   Similarhandgun, pistol, gun, piece

   Note

   Street slang from Multicultural London English, made by clipping handgun and adding a familiar -y. The same pattern gives shotty for a shotgun, and the two travel together: C1's "Even Steven" (2020) sets handies beside shotties. It belongs to that register only. Elsewhere, listeners hear handy as the adjective, so the noun invites misunderstanding outside its home setting.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A mobile phone.

   He glanced at his handy to check the train schedule.

   Her handy buzzed with messages all through the meeting.

   Similarmobile, cellphone, phone, smartphone

   Note

   A word that marks its speaker. In English it turns up mostly among German speakers and in German settings, echoing German Handy. Its origin is disputed. Some trace it to a condensed form of German Handfunktelefon. Others point to an early, neglected English use built on the adjective. The plural is handies. Outside German-influenced English, mobile phone is the safer choice.

9. 9
   adjective

   Of a freight ship, having a small cargo capacity of less than 40,000 deadweight tons.

   The shipping line ordered two handy bulk carriers for regional grain routes.

   Because its berths are shallow, the port can take only handy vessels.

Showing meanings only. Show all 9