left-handed
    adj 1: using or intended for the left hand; "left-handed golfers
           need left-handed clubs"; "left-handed scissors" [ant:
           ambidextrous, right-handed, two-handed]
    2: (of marriages) illicit or informal; "in Colonial America
       left-handed marriages between Frenchmen and Indians were
       frequent"
    3: (of marriages) of a marriage between one of royal or noble
       birth and one of lower rank; valid but with the understanding
       that the rank of the inferior remains unchanged and offspring
       do not succeed to titles or property of the superior [syn:
       morganatic, left-handed]
    4: rotating to the left [syn: levorotary, levorotatory,
       left-handed]
    5: ironically ambiguous; "a left-handed compliment"
    6: lacking physical movement skills, especially with the hands;
       "a bumbling mechanic"; "a bungling performance"; "ham-handed
       governmental interference"; "could scarcely empty a scuttle
       of ashes, so handless was the poor creature"- Mary H. Vorse
       [syn: bumbling, bungling, butterfingered, ham-fisted,
       ham-handed, handless, heavy-handed, left-handed]

Left-handed \Left"-hand`ed\, a.
   1. Having the left hand or arm stronger and more dexterous
      than the right; using the left hand and arm with more
      dexterity than the right.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Clumsy; awkward; unlucky; insincere; sinister; malicious;
      as, a left-handed compliment.
      [1913 Webster]

            The commendations of this people are not always
            left-handed and detractive.           --Landor.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Having a direction contrary to that of the hands of a
      watch when seen in front; -- said of a twist, a rotary
      motion, etc., looked at from a given direction.
      [1913 Webster]

   Left-handed marriage, a morganatic marriage. See
      Morganatic.

   Left-handed screw, a screw constructed to advance away from
      the observer, when turned, as in a nut, with a left-handed
      rotation. An ordinary wood screw is right-handed.
      [1913 Webster] Left-handedness

Left-handed
   (Judg. 3:15; 20:16), one unable to use the right hand skilfully,
   and who therefore uses the left; and also one who uses the left
   as well as the right, ambidexter. Such a condition of the hands
   is due to physical causes. This quality was common apparently in
   the tribe of Benjamin.