left-handed, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

left-handed adj.

[lit. trans. of Lat. sinister]

1. (also left-hand) of sexual relations, extra-marital.

c.1642		implied in left-handed wife
1687		Dryden The Hind and the Panther in Works (1899) I line 353: Then, by a left-hand marriage, weds the dame, / Covering adultery with a specious name.
1760		Foote The Minor 20: I was produced, Sir, by a left-handed marriage [...] between an illustrious lamp-lighter and an eminent itinerant cat and dog butcher.
1833		Satirist (London) 24 Mar. 519/2: The left-handed marriage of the admirable mother of the Duke de Bordeaux has ceased to excite attention in Paris.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 14 May n.p.: Those of both sexes who want left-handed company.
1843		Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin II 186: Begum Sahib, his pious left-handed Moosulmanee wife.
1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 346: Now, ‘me Oncle Gilroy’ [...] had a left-handed wife and promising family in the sylvan retirement of St. John's Wood.
1875		J.H. Warren Crying Shame of NY 113: A white man rarely cohabits with a black woman, taking her to his home; but white women are often found living with negroes in left-handed marriage.
1886		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 18 Dec. 2/3: Miss Katherine Rogers, a sort of left-handed Mrs. Boucicault, as it were.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 30 Apr. 1/1: The elongated expert is residing with a rib that isn’t his’n [...] the regal-aired Romeo refers to it as a left-handed alliance.

2. sly, surreptitious; obtuse, indirect.

1884		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 254: The king he give me a left-handed look out of the corner of his eye.
1896		‘Frederick Benton Williams’ (H.E. Hamblen) On Many Seas 310: The steward, being, as all stewards are, a left-handed friend of the mate.
1942		W. Winchell On Broadway 16 June [synd. col.] Chester Conklin [...] makes a left-handed comeback in the film ‘My Sister Eileen’.
1967		E. Liebow Tally’s Corner 241: He left me with the impression that he was being friendly and, in a left-handed sort of way, was offering me his protection.

3. (UK Und., also left hand) second-hand.

1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 83: I used to sell all the left hand clobber they gave me.
1906		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Coming-Out of Maggie’ Four Million (1915) 69: Maggie O’Toole, on account of her [...] left-handed style of foot work in the quickstep, went to the dances with Anna McCarty and her ‘fellow’.
1919		J. Buchan Mr Standfast (1930) 711: I stagger about the world left-handed and game-legged.

4. undesirable, illicit, evil.

[1608		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 2 (1630) III ii: I am the most wretched fellow: sure some left-handed Priest christened me, I am so vnlucky].
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Sept. 6/1: ‘We do not think that the majority of people will be sorry to hear that his Honour has been promoted to a more important district.’ This last sentence, though possibly well-meant, strikes us as being rather left-handed.
1916		J. Lait ‘The Gangster’s Elegy’ Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 243: There’s three o’ them left-handed swill-box robbers out to settle you.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 230: It’s only a left-handed mick who’d vote Republican.
1945		R.M. Lindner Stone Walls and Men 106: With all their left-handed kindnesses to him, however, he served them well by becoming the ‘fall guy’.
1968		J. Alard He who Shoots Last 79: ‘A nice left-handed drop,’ commented Roth.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 279: ‘As a scholar of sin I take that to be a great compliment. Left-handed perhaps but still an accolade’.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 234: left-handed. Clumsy, maladroit, inferior, insincere, as in left-handed compliment, not a real compliment.
2001		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 3: marijuana rolled up in a paper or cigar paper that is able to be smoked [...] LEFT-HANDED CIGARETTE.

5. (US) homosexual.

1930		J. Tully Shadows of Men 266: Nitro Dugan [...] was in his own words ‘a woman hound.’ But Dugan had no prejudice against such boys. ‘I’m just not left-handed,’ he used to say.
1933		J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 304: I ain’t got no use for a left-handed male. They ought to get their filthy mouths socked every time they pull their act.

6. reverse, back-to-front, also fig. use, nonsensical, foolish.

1930		D.M. Garrison ‘Song of the Pipeline’ in Botkin Folk-Say 109: I’m so hungry I’m left-handed.
1937		Duckett & Staple ‘Double Feature’ in N.Y. Age 24 Apr. 7/1: When the red-headed chick [...] stops throwing that left-handed jive about [etc].
1949		R. Chandler Little Sister 70: A left-handed stutterer. He only stuttered when he wasn’t excited.

In compounds

left-handed batsman (n.)

a male homosexual.

1999

Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 18: left-handed batsman euph. Someone who prefers his balls delivered from the pavillion end.

left-handed compliment (n.)

an insincere or ‘back-handed’ compliment, a remark that ‘damns with faint praise’.

1796		Critical Rev. 18 85: [...] and to drop a left-handed compliment (p. 64) calculated to disgust the whole corps of the Virginian officer.
1807		Annual Rev. and Hist. of Lit. V 53/1: How Mr. Drummond recovered himself after this left-handed compliment we are not informed : the laugh must have been rather against him.
1825		Westmorland Gaz. 16 July 2/2: He will esteem this no left-handed compliment — His fame does not rest upon this.
1835		J.D. Carrick Laird of Logan I 189: A LEFT- HANDED COMPLIMENT. ‘I owe you one,’ said a withered old Coelebs to a lady the other night at a party. ‘For what?’ said she. ‘Why, for calling me a young gentleman’.
1846		Dundee Courier 3 Feb. 3/3: A Left-Handed Compliment. God bless your honour you saved my life [...] I served under you at the batle of Corunna and when you ran away I followed or else I should have been killed.
1857		Westmorland Gaz. 30 May 5/5: His left-handed ciompliment to the Emperor [etc.].
1861		Lloyd’s Wkly Newspaper 24 Nov. 6/4: [...] A testimonial offered to a young lady because she defended her virtue [...] is preposterous.
1874		Sth London Chron. 22 Aug. 2/3: It may seem a left-handed compliment, but it is a compliment, nevertheless.
1881		G. Saintsbury Dryden 6: It has been sought to diminish the force of this very left-handed compliment to Cambridge by quoting a phrase of Dryden’s.
1888		Aberdeen Eve. Exp. 13 Mar. 8/5: IMr inglis considered that a somewhat left-handed compliment.
1897		Living Age 212 38/2: He overheard the words coupled with his name, and anxious to know who had paid him this left-handed compliment walked up to the marquis.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Sept. 11/3: The Muscovite, of course, indignantly refused the left-handed compliment.
1916		Manchester Eve. News 22 Feb. 3/3: It would, perhaps, be a left-handed compliment [...] to say that the frocks alone are well worth going to see.
1923		Cork Examiner 1 Feb. 8/5: It was a left-handed compliment to say that the motor car had made Ireland what it is to-day.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 109: She had not noticed his left-handed compliment.
1944		Cheltenham Chron. 16 Dec. 4/4: We saw in him a strong resemblance to his father — which was not a ‘left-handed’ compliment.
1983		J. Ciardi A Second Browser’s Dict. 171: Left-handed compliment. An insincere or ingenuously awkward compliment that is in fact a derogation.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 234: left-handed. Clumsy, maladroit, inferior, insincere, as in left-handed compliment, not a real compliment.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 113: Morris considered this a compliment (of the left-handed variety, granted).

left-handed monkey wrench (n.) (also left-hand monkey wrench, left-handed coffee-cup, ...screwdriver, …saw)

(US) an imaginary tool that an inexperienced worker is sent to find as a prank.

1880		American Machinist III 338/1: [They] are sending him from one to another for ‘the half-round square’ and ‘the left-handed monkey-wrench’.
1896		Ade Artie 150: The second day I was there [...] ’Lias asked me to go back to the barn and ask Uncle Matt if he had a left-handed monkey wrench.
1915		P.E. Curtiss Ladder 21: He [...] directed me to go down to the machine-shop and get him a left-handed monkey-wrench. With perfect artlessness and the utmost good humor I departed on my task.
1915		T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 15 June [synd. cartoon] Giving the New Office Boy the Old Razoo. ‘Go up stairs and get me a paper-stretcher’ ‘He might fetch that left-handed coffee cup too while he’s a bout’ .
1921		DN V 94: Left-handed monkey wrench...Left-handed screw driver...Left-handed saw .
1933		J. Conroy Disinherited 74: You go to the tool room and ast ’em fer a left-hand monkey-wrench.
1967		(con. 1930s) R. McKenna ‘Fool Errand’ Sons of Martha 70: My first day aboard he sent me out to borrow a left-handed monkey wrench.
1972		Bob Weir/The Grateful Dead ‘Greatest Story Ever Told’ 🎵 Ace [album] Abraham and Isaac sitting on a fence / Get right to work if you have any sense / You know the one thing we need is a left-hand monkey wrench.
1983		J. Ciardi A Second Browser’s Dict. 171: Left-handed monkey wrench. An inane nonesuch by which underdeveloped ‘old hands’ send an ignorant new boob on a wild-goose chase to locate one.
2002		‘Monkey Business’ Firethorn 🌐 ‘Jonny,’ he said, ‘can you go ask Bob Pearl if he has a left-handed monkey wrench?’ I was so excited. One of the men had actually given me a real assignment! [...] By the time it was all over I had been sent to find everything from right-handed hammers to left-handed saws. And I was unsuccessful every time.

left-handed website (n.) [it causes visitors to use the mouse with their left hand]

a website specializing in pornography .

1999		Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 18: left-handed website euph. An Internet website specialising in cyberscud, causing visitors to use the mouse with the left hand.
2002		Facial Follies 🌐 Facial Follies is an adult site for entertainment purposes only. You must be 18 years old or older and able to view this type of material in your home, city, state or country. This is a left-handed website designed by left-handed webmasters specially for wrong-handed people.

left-handed wife (n.) (also wife of the left hand)

a mistress; thus the masc. form, left-handed bridegroom, a male lover.

c.1642		T. Killigrew Parson’s Wedding (1664) I i: Do you not know he’s married according to the Rogues Liturgy? a left-handed bridegroom; I saw him take the ring from a Tinker’s Dowager.
1728		Defoe Street Robberies Considered 30: Autem Mort, a Wife of the Left Hand [Ibid.] 46: I found my left-handed wife grew so pert upon her being so serviceable to me, I had seldom a quiet Hour.
1772		Oxford Jrnl 19 Dec. 1/1: A Gentleman [...] likened the Secret Committee to a left-handed wife.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Left handed wife, a Concubine, an allusion to an ancient German Custom, according to which when a man married a woman greatly his inferior he gave her his left hand.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Left-Handed Wife. A concubine; an allusion to an ancient German custom, according to which, when a man married his concubine, or a woman greatly his inferior, he gave her his left hand.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1788].
1822		Examiner (London) 7 Apr. 13/1: George I told the Duchess of kendal (his left-handed wife) that if he could he would appear to her after his death.
1852		Kendal Mercury 3 Apr. 6/2: Should she think proper to become his ‘joman’ (left-handed wife), she shall never be left minus ‘the first scran (food) on the pad, and plenty of lush (drink) when she wants it’.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1863		Belfast Morn. News 20 Oct. 4/2: She [...] consented to become the left-handed wife of her young sovereign [...] according to the custom in these left-handed or secret marriages.
1871		Reynolds’s Newspaper 22 Jan. 3/1: She became the left-handed wife of the Duke of Sussex.
1881		Reynolds’s Newspaper 20 Mar. 5/6: The Princess Dolgorouski, the Czar’s left-handed wife, had implored the Emperor [...] not to go.
1889		Sheffield Indep. 13 Mar. 4/5: The consequences [...] usually fell upon the left-handed wife instead of the husband.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 44: Left-Handed Wife, a concubine.
1900		Falkirk Herald 1 Aug. 6/7: I fancy there was nothing more awful than a left-handed wife [...] in the dim regions of his private life.
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 17 Aug. 12/1: ‘The pretty blonde [...] must be my bride, and [...] the beautiful quadroon [...] my wife with the left hand’’.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Left handed wife, a kept woman.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 234: left-handed wife, a concubine.