Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having the hands hardened or calloused by labor.

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

  • adjective Having the hands horny and callous from labor.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • He failed to see the horny-handed sons of toil enjoying grand pianos or riding in automobiles.

    Chapter V 2010

  • But while cricket is genteel, conjuring up images of tea-drinking vicars with pinkies extended on the village green, the organised chaos of hurling is more reminiscent of a couple of gangs of horny-handed rival villagers setting about each other with pitchforks.

    Ireland expected England to hurl abuse in defeat, not throw flowers | Barry Glendenning 2011

  • Third, the farmers of Bhatta-Parsaul are not exactly horny-handed sons of toil.

    Away from the glamour of Formula One, poverty stalks India's villages 2011

  • Thus far there is no evidence that Mr. Simpson has actually squirreled away money intended for his London house to be utilised on his Tuscan hideaway, of which one imagines his Nottingham South electorate were suitably ignorant: it would not do to let them think he was anything other than a horny-handed son of toil at the Labour workface would it?

    'Shred & Bury': The New Westminster Watchword 2008

  • Thus far there is no evidence that Mr. Simpson has actually squirreled away money intended for his London house to be utilised on his Tuscan hideaway, of which one imagines his Nottingham South electorate were suitably ignorant: it would not do to let them think he was anything other than a horny-handed son of toil at the Labour workface would it?

    Archive 2008-03-02 2008

  • In Stornoway I mocked my own assumptions about a Scottish island restaurant, the way I imagined it would be all unfussy fish dishes and horny-handed serving wenches, and instead got a modern urban bistro.

    Restaurant review: Kota 2010

  • Now, yours truly is a native-born and horny-handed son of the soil of Eireann, as some of you know and some of you even care.

    Indian crime and proto-crime Peter Rozovsky 2010

  • Jeans come prewashed and acid-treated to make them look like what they are not -- authentic work clothes for horny-handed sons of toil and the soil.

    The Social History of Blue Jeans elena maria vidal 2009

  • Jeans come prewashed and acid-treated to make them look like what they are not -- authentic work clothes for horny-handed sons of toil and the soil.

    Archive 2009-06-01 elena maria vidal 2009

  • Christ, we wouldn't want some horny-handed son of toil like Bob Piper on board.

    Idle Dream No. 94 Newmania 2007

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