readyhanded

readyhanded (comparative more readyhanded, superlative most readyhanded)

1. Alternative form of ready-handed
   • 1642, John Milton, The Reason of Church-Government Urged against Prelaty:

     The door of grace turns upon smooth hinges wide opening to fend out, but soon shutting to recall the precious offers of mercy to a nation: which, unless watchfulness and zeal, two quicksighted and readyhanded virgins, be there in our behalf to receive, we lose: and still the oftener we lose, the straiter the door opens, and the less is offered.

   • 1929 January, [George] Bernard Shaw, “Cæsar and Cleopatra”, in Three Plays for Puritans: The Devil’s Disciple, Cæsar and Cleopatra, & Captain Brassbound’s Conversion, London: Constable and Company, →OCLC, prologue, page 95:

     And mankind shuddered; but the gods laughed; for Septimius was but a knife that Pompey had sharpened; and when it turned against his own throat they said that Pompey had better have made Septimius a ploughman than so brave and readyhanded a slayer.

   • 1938, Vicente de Bragança Cunha, Revolutionary Portugal: (1910-1936), page 15:

     Nor is any man alive who may not, or ought not to, see the express image of himself in this self-sufficing Vasco, with his faith in the cross, his confidence in himself and his readyhanded use of means.