Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having hands calloused or hardened by work.
  • adjective Oppressive; tyrannical.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having hands hardened by toil.
  • Practising severity; ruling with a strong hand.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having hard hands, as a manual laborer.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Alternative form of hardhanded.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Iranian authorities sent police into the streets of the capital Monday to crack down on informal currency trading and support the rial, signaling Iranians' heightened insecurity over their dwindling buying power and Tehran's increasingly hard-handed efforts to stave off economic panic.

    Iran Cracks Down on Dollar Trades Bill Spindle 2012

  • Being hyper-critical, he's probably still a bit of a hard-handed, away-from-body prodder in the corridor for Tests, but he's arguably the purest and most exhilirating shotmaker and, anyway, Colly has played 68 games with myriad technical 'flaws'.

    The Ashes 2010-11: England management focussed on securing the series | Mike Selvey 2011

  • I mean, even Giuliani who people thought at the time was hard-handed going after the mafia, was nothing compared to what Spitzer was doing.

    CNN Transcript Mar 11, 2008 2008

  • The officers were from the a military intelligence and security service (MIVD) cell and carried out "hard-handed tactical interrogations".

    Tarred with the same brush? Richard 2006

  • And even the mental health professionals at the hospital fail him with their hard-handed discipline and flawed treatment.

    Film on adolescent addiction raises question regarding drug rehab and mental health 2007

  • Zimbabwe's seven-year economic and political decline has been marked by an increasingly hard-handed government clampdown on its critics in recent months.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2007

  • The town gentleman was not half so far removed from Sol and Dan, and the hard-handed order in general, in his passions as in his philosophy.

    The Hand of Ethelberta 2006

  • Daniel Thwaite was swarthy, hard-handed, black-bearded — with a noble fire in his eyes, but with an innate coarseness about his mouth which betokened roughness as well as strength.

    Lady Anna 2004

  • With that general order insured, she practiced the kind of hard-handed control for which she had become known among the Dark Queen's Highlords.

    Dalamar the Dark Berberick, Nancy Varian 2000

  • Enough! the mage cried in his mind even as the hard-handed avatar pulled back on the thick leather reins, obliging him to rise above the trees and the fire.

    Dalamar the Dark Berberick, Nancy Varian 2000

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