English

Alternative forms

• lighthanded

Adjective

light-handed ‎(comparative more light-handed, superlative most light-handed)

1. Gentle; benign and with minimal intervention.
   • 2013, Brian Easton, The Whimpering of the State: Policy After MMP, ISBN 1869407962:

     At the other extreme, the view has been that light-handed 'regulation' is a euphemism for 'handsoff'.

   • 2013, Pauline Fatien Diochon, Albert J. Mills, & Emmanuel Raufflet, The Dark Side 2: Critical Cases on the Downside of Business, ISBN 190764380X:

     By maintaining a light-handed approach, regulations could be kept to a minimum, with additional measures introduced to overcome any weaknesses in the regulartory framework that arose over time.

   • 2002, Irini Rockwell, The Five Wisdom Energies: A Buddhist Way of Understanding Personalities, Emotions, and Relationships, ISBN 0834824086:

     They are aware that the more light-handed their power, the more effective it is.

2. Sparing; applying only slight pressure or minimal amounts.
   • 2015, Jamuna Pai, No One Has to Know: Anti-ageing for the Indian Skin, ISBN 9351364593:

     Did you know that the light-handed, 'less is more' approach works best even for heavy acne and deep wrinkles?

   • 2014, Agatha Kulaga & Erin Patinkin, Ovenly: Sweet & Salty Recipes from New York's Most Creative Bakery, ISBN 0373892950, page 43:

     honey tends to soak into the cake, so be light-handed with it

   • 2010, Riku Campo, Best in Beauty, ISBN 1439155852, page 257:

     The shadow was now also applied to the lower lash line, but still very light-handed.

   • 2000, Amy Einsohn, The Copyeditor's Handbook, ISBN 0520218345, page 27:

     Kate's light-handed copyedit is shown in figure 1, along with a medium and heavy copyediting of the same passage.

3. Delicate and skilled; nimble and dextrous;
   • 2014, Ruth Axtell Morren, Winter Is Past, ISBN 1488787735:

     The children are so quick and light-handed, the victim doesn't feel a thing.

   • 2012, Brenda Jagger, Distant Choices, ISBN 1447227042:

     This much she knew her mother to be aiming for, motivated by a need to escape the fate and the malice of women like Maud, a need to arrange matters by her own light-handed, cool-hearted expertise so that when High Grange did become the property of Francis, or another, she would be in a position to laugh as she took her leave, driving off in her own carriage to pleasures of her own choosing, in her own home.

   • 2011, Achmed Abdullah & Vincent Starrett, Adventure Tales #5, ISBN 1434437442:

     He had hoped -- Fleming sighed a little and frowned a little as he though of his aspirations-- that he could have got a partner to fertilize the flowers. A light-handed partner, with the deftness for the pinch and the touch with the toothpick that was all the work demanded in the early morning hours of coolness.

   • 1902, Anna Barrows, Estelle Minerva Hatch Merrill, & Mary Johnson Lincoln, Everyday Housekeeping: A Magazine for Practical Housekeepers and Mothers, Volumes 17-18:

     Fowl boiled with a mayonnaise sauce flavored variously, or served in aspic jelly; chicken pie with a crust made from Mrs. Beeton's recipe, and by a light-handed cook, forms a dish not to be despised on a hot day.

4. Light-hearted; fun and witty or easygoing.
   • 2012, Elizabeth Bowen, Friends and Relations: A Novel, ISBN 0226925269, page 35:

     He seemed likeable, a scrupulous, slow young man, without the disengagedness of Considine, that light-hearted, light-handed seducer who (Edward had come to believe) even shot lions negligently.

   • 2001, Woody Register, The Kid of Coney Island: Fred Thompson and the Rise of American Amusements, ISBN 0190286938:

     This piece of advice and the hyperkinetic manner in which it was staged owed less to McCay's light-handed and dreamily paced fantasy than to the boy wonder of Broadway and the amusement empire that he tried to amass during the first decade of the twentieth century..

   • 1996, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, ISBN 1743285345, page ccxxiv:

     Both were extensively-travelled cosmopolitans, popular and at home in salons across the world; good talkers (Yazid often to excess) with perfect command of English, a light-handed sense of humour and easy-going manners.

5. flippant; lacking seriousness.
   • 1921, Coal Age - Volume 20, page 669:

     Philip Penna, of Indiana, a veteran of many labor controversies, roundly scored the United Mine Workers for their light-handed treatment of their contracts.

6. (nautical or military) Not having a full complement of workers.
   • 2007, Theodore Dwight, Things as They Are, ISBN 1429001739, page 64:

     I looked at the round bows of the sloop, and then at the old sails and the light-handed crew.

   • 1891, S.A. Hurlbut, Congressional Series of United States Public Documents, Volume 2795, page 431:

     I have therefore ordered Fuller's brigade from Memphis to Big Bear Creek, which leaves me very light-handed here.

   • 1866, Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects, page 195:

     Bower anchors should be alike in weight; for the convenience, however, of light-handed crews, it is customary to make a very material difference between them, which is a very grave error

   • 1841, Richard Henry Dana, The Seaman's Friend, page 57:

     If light-handed, or the wind fresh, let go the bowline and ease off the tack, (being careful to let the bowline go before the tack,) and haul up the weather clew.

7. Thieving, larcenous.
   • 1894, Charles Dickens, All the Year Round, page 26:

     Another of his duties was to keep a sharp look-out for light-handed customers, besides other occupations which time, as Mr. Blackley said, would teach him.

   • 1862, Blackwood's Magazine - Volume 91, page 313:

     He has a great many amusing episodes describing the light-handed lads from the hills coming down, and in the general confusion of the times pluudenng Cavalier and Covenanter alike;

   • 1817, Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy:

     Thae Hielandmen are o' the westland clans, and just as light-handed as their neighbours, an a' tales be true

8. (food) Fresh and light-tasting, not rich, heavy, or highly seasoned.
   • 2012, Isabella Beeton, Mrs Beeton's Puddings, ISBN 0297868918:

     Fruit jellies offer an excellent, light-handed way of making vibrantly fresh desserts to round off a rich meal.

   • 2011, Diana K. Schwam, Frommer's New Orleans, ISBN 1118161548:

     It's a sweet little bistro, a local favorite, turning out bright, lovely French/Mediterranean-influenced dishes like sautéed escargot in a Roquefort gratiné, and light-handed scallops with pea shoots and bowfin caviar.

   • 2005, Fred DuBose, Evan Spingarn, & Nancy Maniscalco, The Ultimate Wine Lover's Guide 2006, ISBN 1402728158, page 141:

     Lively, fresh-tasting, and light-handed in style, it pairs well with any food that likes a dry white with a bit of fruit to it, from chips 'n' dips, shrimp cocktail, and pates to entree salads and poultry.

9. (obsolete) Having or requiring little strength.
   • 1885, Michigan Dept. of Labor, Report - Volume 2, page 268:

     ...are such as the cotton, woolen, and shoe factories, wherein the use of machinery has made mere human tenders of the operatives employed; or in such industries as the making of garments, wherein light-handed and comparatively unskilled labor, such as that of women and children, embodies the very worst features of an utterly selfish competion, and leaves the worker almost entirely at the mercy of "sweaters" and "middle-men."

   • 1845, Charles Rowcroft, Tales of the Colonies; Or, The Adventures of an Emigrant, page 93:

     December. Month for sheep-shearing. Rather light-handed for this work.

Adverb

light-handed ‎(comparative more light-handed, superlative most light-handed)

1. Carrying very little.
   • 2014, William Haskell, Two Years in the Klondike and Alaskan Gold Fields 1896-1898:

     Some who had sold their outfits at Skagway, and pushed on light-handed so as to get through, began to appropriate new outfits on the other side.

   • 1907, Société des Américanistes, Musée de l'Homme, Proceedings, page 43:

     Sometimes, on the contrary, they are so harassed by the Blackfoot, who surprise them in the night and carry off their horses, that they are forced to return light-handed, and then they have nothing to eat but roots all the winter.

   • 1824, Sir Walter Scott, Redgauntlet:

     'Are ye come light-handed, ye son of a toom whistle?' said Sir Robert. 'Zounds! if you are'

2. In a light-handed manner.
   • 1876, Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, a Popular Journal of General Literature, Volume 17:

     At first merely fidgety, and managed with the greatest delicacy by the English postilion, then ill-tempered and capricious, swerving from side to side, necessitating in self-defence the use of the whip-—“ But only gently and light-handed, .."