Meaning

With the back of the hand..

Definitions by Sense

1. With the back of the hand.
2. Involving a backward flip of the hand.
3. Insincere, sarcastic, ironic, or self-contradictory.
4. Indirect.
5. Backwards, turned around.
6. (of writing) inclining to the left
7. Retrospective, occurring after the fact rather than in advance.
8. Self-serving, corrupt, slipshod, or neglectful.

Example Sentences

The trader roars like an animal whose paw has been caught in a trap, but he hauls back his other arm and lands a backhanded blow to the side of her head that knocks her sideways onto the babushki bench.

Some casters can do a cross-body or backhanded cast quite effectively.

With your palm facing down, your wrist snaps forward. This is the same type of motion used for the backhanded change-up.

But modesty here is out of the question, and is often the most beggarly and back-handed friend that merit can have in its pay.

Don't mistake this for even a backhanded compliment; that at least takes a wry sense of imagination. This is a patronizing compliment, which is worse than no compliment at all.

He sometimes paid Descartes the backhanded compliment—backhanded because it detracted from the Frenchman's much-vaunted originality— of suggesting that his major achievement was to restore the study of Plato.

Radio Savant wrote two other commercials filled with sarcasm, one of them entitled "Apology." In it, announcer Morris offers a backhanded apology that allows him to say ...."

But on this particular occasion I was fired on as an individual by an entire battery of enemy artillery, and for some odd and backhanded reason I felt important.

Word Forms

• more backhanded
• most backhanded
• back-handed

Synonyms for backhanded

Antonyms for backhanded

Related Words

When Should You Use Backhanded?

Use backhanded when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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