barehanded

[ bair-han-did ]

adjective, adverb
  1. with hands uncovered: He caught the baseball barehanded.

  2. without tools, weapons, or other means: foolishly coming barehanded to the besieged city.

Origin of barehanded

1
First recorded in 1400–50, barehanded is from the late Middle English word bare-handyd.See bare1, handed

Words Nearby barehanded

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use barehanded in a sentence

  • I went up there ready to beat the world barehanded, to work on the frontier, to build that colony, and maybe lead another one.

    Martyr | Alan Edward Nourse

British Dictionary definitions for barehanded

barehanded

/ (ˌbɛəˈhændɪd) /


adverb, adjective
  1. without weapons, tools, etc

  2. with hands uncovered

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012