# handy

Pronunciation: say "HAN-dee" /ˈhæn.di/

## Adjective

1. Easy to use; useful.
   - Simple: Easy to use and helpful to have around.
   - _The app proved handy for splitting the bill among friends._
   - _A lighter laptop is handier for travel than a desktop computer._
2. Nearby; within easy reach.
   - Simple: Close by, or kept where you can reach it quickly.
   - _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._
3. Of a person, dexterous or skillful in manual work.
   - Simple: Good at making or fixing things with your hands.
   - _She's remarkably handy and rebuilt the entire porch over a single weekend._
   - _He's handier with an engine than most professional mechanics._
4. Quick to resort to violence, especially to using one's fists. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Quick to hit people or get into fights.
   - _The bouncer ejected a customer who got handy with the waitstaff._
   - _Witnesses said the suspect turned handy when officers tried to cuff him._
9. Of a freight ship, having a small cargo capacity of less than 40,000 deadweight tons.
   - Simple: Small for a cargo ship, able to carry less than 40,000 tons of goods.
   - _The shipping line ordered two handy bulk carriers for regional grain routes._
   - _Because its berths are shallow, the port can take only handy vessels._

## Noun

5. An act of manually stimulating a partner's genitals; a hand job. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A very rude slang word for touching someone's private parts with the hand for sexual pleasure.
   - _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._
6. The hand.
   - Simple: A hand: the part of your body at the end of your arm.
   - _She traced the baby's handy in crayon for the birthday card._
   - _He wiped his sticky handies on a napkin before dessert._
7. A handgun. *(dialectal, Multicultural London English)*
   - Simple: A small gun that can be held and fired with one hand.
   - _The detective bagged the handy as evidence at the scene._
   - _He kept a handy tucked in his waistband whenever he made a delivery._
8. A mobile phone.
   - Simple: A cell phone: a phone you can carry with you.
   - _He glanced at his handy to check the train schedule._
   - _Her handy buzzed with messages all through the meeting._

## Origin

**Meanings 1–4, 9** — From Middle English handy, an alteration of earlier hendi ("handy, skillful"), from Old English *hendiġ ("skillful") and ultimately Proto-Germanic *handugaz ("handy, skillful, nimble"), from *handuz ("hand"). It is effectively "hand" plus "-y," with cognates such as Dutch handig, Norwegian hendig, and Swedish händig.
**Meaning 6** — From hand plus the diminutive suffix -y.
**Meanings 5, 7** — A clipping of handgun and hand job followed by the diminutive suffix -y.
**Meaning 8** — Disputed: some commentators say this sense originally comes from German, as a condensed form of Handfunktelefon, while others claim there was an early but now neglected English antetype (from etymology 1).

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