Antonyms for heavy-handed


Grammar : Adj
Spell : hev-ee-han-did
Phonetic Transcription : ˈhɛv iˈhæn dɪd


Definition of heavy-handed

Origin :
  • also heavyhanded, 1630s, originally "weary" or "clumsy;" from heavy (adj.) + handed. Sense of "overbearing" is first recorded 1883.
  • adj strict
  • adj awkward
Example sentences :
  • A rough-featured, heavy-handed peasant's son was this Peter.
  • Extract from : « God Wills It! » by William Stearns Davis
  • John, being the heavy-faced and heavy-handed man, shut the door.
  • Extract from : « Buried Alive: A Tale of These Days » by Arnold Bennett
  • What had he in common with his own father—hard-working, heavy-handed Amos Burr?
  • Extract from : « The Voice of the People » by Ellen Glasgow
  • Argyll's heavy-handed management of that election is the subject of Defoe's Atalantis Major.
  • Extract from : « Atalantis Major » by Daniel Defoe
  • That particular sort of heavy-handed jest was specially dear to Bronckhorst.
  • Extract from : « The Works of Rudyard Kipling: One Volume Edition » by Rudyard Kipling
  • The boy could direct a gang of heavy-handed laborers nearly as well as he could.
  • Extract from : « In the Days of the Guild » by Louise Lamprey
  • Some men are born with the requisite sensitiveness of touch, others will be clumsy and heavy-handed to the end of their days.
  • Extract from : « Chats on Angling » by H. V. Hart-Davis
  • And doubtless it was the cardinal's heavy-handed dealing with Fra Tomasso that had provoked this particular sermon.
  • Extract from : « The Saracen: Land of the Infidel » by Robert Shea
  • And yet, compared with the methods of the heavy-handed realist of later times such unscrupulousness had a merit of its own.
  • Extract from : « Garden-Craft Old and New » by John D. Sedding
  • It is the same fierce, hard-living, heavy-handed, very cunning service out of which the Navy as we know it to-day was born.
  • Extract from : « Sea Warfare » by Rudyard Kipling

Synonyms for heavy-handed

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019