high-handed
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- high-handedly adverb
- high-handedness noun
Etymology
Origin of high-handed
First recorded in 1625–35
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Triggering the administration’s nuclear response on Friday was Anthropic’s high-handed refusal to give the Defense Department carte blanche to use its technology as it sees fit.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 1, 2026
Scottish Conservatives chairman Craig Hoy told the BBC that Mr Russell was "dismissing the concerns raised by Lisa Cameron in the most high-handed of ways."
From BBC • Oct. 13, 2023
In countering misinformation, FDA also risks coming off as high-handed.
From Salon • Jul. 21, 2023
Britain did try that divorce once, in the mid-1600s, when parliamentary forces cut off the head of the high-handed King Charles I, and replaced him with a Commonwealth led by a politician-soldier named Oliver Cromwell.
From Los Angeles Times • May 9, 2023
She wasn’t sure she liked Fabyan, whose high-handed ways reminded her of her father.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
