four-handed

[ fawr-han-did, fohr- ]

/ ˈfɔrˈhæn dɪd, ˈfoʊr- /

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adjective

involving four hands or players, as a game at cards:Bridge is usually a four-handed game.

intended for four hands, as a piece of music for the piano.

having four hands, or four feet adapted for use as hands; quadrumanous.

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Also four-hand

[fawr-hand, fohr-] /ˈfɔrˌhænd, ˈfoʊr-/ (for defs. 1, 2).

Origin of four-handed

First recorded in 1765–75

Words nearby four-handed

fourfold purchase, four-footed, four-four time, four freedoms, fourgon, four-handed, Four-H Club, Four Horsemen, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Four Hundred, four-hundred-day clock

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use four-handed in a sentence

There are four photos there of representative presidential candidates.
Today’s GOP: Still Cool With Racist Pandering?|Michael Tomasky|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The clichés about football-obsessed husbands and frustrated wives are pretty heavy-handed.
‘A Gronking to Remember’ Speed Read: 8 Naughtiest Bits|Emily Shire|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Four weeks after the injections, all 20 of the participants had developed the antibodies needed to stave off the infection.
The Race for the Ebola Vaccine|Abby Haglage|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
After four or five months of casual interaction, they realized they both had lost a young parent to cancer.
Everyone at This Dinner Party Has Lost Someone|Samantha Levine|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST

The injunction, she argued, only applies to these four plaintiffs—not to anyone else.
The Back Alley, Low Blow-Ridden Fight to Stop Gay Marriage in Florida Is Finally Over|Jay Michaelson|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
A little boy of four was moved to passionate grief at the sight of a dead dog taken from a pond.
Children's Ways|James Sully
In cross-section the burrows varied from round (three inches in diameter) to oval (three inches high and four inches wide).
Summer Birds From the Yucatan Peninsula|Erwin E. Klaas
Before the spinet a bench was placed about four feet below the keys, and I was put upon the bench.
Gulliver's Travels|Jonathan Swift
We had six field-pieces, but we only took four, harnessed wit twice the usual number of horses.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various
The Seven-score and four on the six middle Bells, the treble leading, and the tenor lying behind every change, makes good Musick.
Tintinnalogia, or, the Art of Ringing|Richard Duckworth and Fabian Stedman

British Dictionary definitions for four-handed

four-handed

adjective

(of a card game) arranged for four players

(of a musical composition) written for two performers at the same piano

Derived forms of four-handed

four-handedly, adverb

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