1.
[syn: backhand(a), backhanded]
2. roundabout or ambiguous;
- Example: "attacks from that source amounted to a backhanded compliment to his integrity"
- Example: "a backhanded and dishonest way of reaching his goal"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Backhanded \Back"hand`ed\, a.
1. With the hand turned backward; as, a backhanded blow.
[1913 Webster]
2. Indirect; awkward; insincere; sarcastic; as, a backhanded
compliment.
[1913 Webster]
3. Turned back, or inclining to the left; as, backhanded
letters.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
backhanded \back"hand`ed\, a. & adv. (Sport)
Stroked with a backhand[2]; as, a backhanded drive.
[PJC]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
backhanded
adj 1: (of racket strokes) made across the body with back of
hand facing direction of stroke [syn: backhand(a),
backhanded] [ant: forehand(a), forehanded]
2: roundabout or ambiguous; "attacks from that source amounted
to a backhanded compliment to his integrity"; "a backhanded
and dishonest way of reaching his goal"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
43 Moby Thesaurus words for "backhanded":
O-shaped, abusive, ambagious, atrocious, backhand, calumnious,
circuitous, circular, contumelious, deflectional, degrading,
deviant, deviating, deviative, devious, digressive, discursive,
divagational, divergent, excursive, helical, humiliating, indirect,
insolent, insulting, left-handed, meandering, oblique, offensive,
orbital, out-of-the-way, outrageous, rotary, round, roundabout,
scurrile, scurrilous, side, sidelong, sinister, sinistral, spiral,
unspeakable