Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. usu. of people, large, strapping; thus two handed fellow, two-handed wench.

1678		Dryden Kind Keeper I i: A kept Mistress, a brave strapping Jade, a two-handed Whore!
1693		Dryden Juvenal VI 106: Into the Fair with Women mixt, he went, Arm’d with a huge two-handed Instrument; A grateful Present to those holy Quires, Where the Mouse guilty of his Sex retires.
1706		R. Estcourt Fair Example I i: Ne’er stir abroad unless of a Sunday Morning to the Meeting, with a huge overgrown Prentice, and a two-handed Bible at my Heels.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1787		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Instructions to a Celebrated Laureat’ Works (1794) II 31: Large, red-poll’d, blowzy, hard two-handed jades.
1822		National Advocate (N.Y.) 14 June 2/4: William Peters, a stout, healthy, two handed looking black man.
1868		Leeds Times 18 July 6/4: I say, Missus, here’s Dick, here’s two-handed Dick.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 90: Two-Handed, fit to fight with the fists.
1912		Ade Knocking the Neighbors 203: He is a prize Bunk, a two-handed Grafter, a Short-Change Artist and a Broadway Wolf.
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 57: She gives Rags as two-handed a bawling out as I ever heard in my life.
1935		Hull Dly Mail 27 Aug. 9/5: He was caught with Foord’s fierce two-handed attacks.
1950		Dundee Courier 30 Dec. 4/2: He is a speed merchant, quite as aggressive as Tennant, and keeps up a striong two-handed attack.

2. clumsy, maladroit.

1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.

3. (US) dedicated, committed; generous.

1910		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley Says 15: He was betther known as a two-handed dhrinker.
1919		Van Loan ‘His Own Stuff’ in Score by Innings (2004) 380: His reputation as a two-handed kidder was established then and there.
1931		D. Runyon ‘Romance in the Roaring Forties’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 33: A two-handed spender such as Dave the Dude.