steady-handed

See also: steadyhanded

English

Alternative forms

• steadyhanded

Etymology

steady +‎ handed

Adjective

steady-handed (comparative more steady-handed, superlative most steady-handed)

1. Capable of smooth, sure movements.
   • 2000 May, Jerry Miller, “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?”, in Indianapolis Monthly, volume 23, number 10, page 65:

     Yet despite its good intentions, the IRL has attracted more untried, fuzz-faced young gunslingers-in-waiting than tight-jawed, steady-handed shootists, pulling in only two drivers who still fit the mold.

   • 2009, Barbara-Jo Lucchine Kruczek, Play Me a Song, →ISBN, page 159:

     Uncle Tommy, the once steady-handed Gene Krupa of the Vernon Troubadours and the Palmer Orchestra, whose sticks never missed a snare or a cymbal, missed the bowl of meatballs on the table.

   • 2010, Charles E. Day, The Tenth Man: Living Black in Blue, →ISBN, page 107:

     He was a steady-handed shooter with a heavy stick and the ability to back a ball up or make it spin left or right and position a queue ball behind the next shot to be taken–unique skills, even before Minnesota Fats.

2. Executed with smooth, sure movements.
   • 2010, FAA, Aviation Instructor's Handbook, page 2-21:

     Theories about how a skill evolves from the awkward and deliberate performance associated with the cognitive stage to the smooth and steady-handed performance of the automatic response stage have one thing in common: progress appears to depend on repeated practice.

   • 2011, Mel Harmon, A Trout In The Milk: Profiles In Prosecution, →ISBN, page 34:

     It's hard if you work at it easy, and it's easy if you work hard at setting your sight on a specific marker at the end of the field and on steady-handed steering toward the marker.

   • 2012, Ross Bentley-Davies, Walkers Creek: A Western, →ISBN, page 17:

     The barber laughs so hard at the simple answer to the riddle that Logan fears for his chances of a steady-handed shave.

3. Consistent and reliable.
   • 2005, Peter C. Bjarkman, Diamonds Around the Globe, →ISBN, page 270:

     The final phase of Mexican League history was launched only after the sudden death of Jorge Pasquel in 1955; it consisted of steady-handed rebuilding of league fortunes under the capable direction of a new league management.

   • 2012, Hossam Nasser, From Richard Kimble to Barack Obama: America as Viewed by an Egyptian-American who Loves Her, →ISBN:

     Foreign policy has to be dealt in a steady-handed and consistent manner.

   • 2014, Carsten Jensen, The Right and the Welfare State, →ISBN, page 89:

     The Conservative Party under Thatcher was famously steady-handed in targeting certain elements of the then-existing British labor market structure and complementing social programs.

Derived terms

• steady-handedness

 

Adverb

steady-handed (comparative more steady-handed, superlative most steady-handed)

1. In a steady-handed manner.
   • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company:

     Yet he faced his foemen with dauntless courage, dashing in, springing back, sure-footed, steady-handed, with a point which seemed to menace three at once.

   • 2004, Nate Cleveland, Bare Hands, Numb Skulls, →ISBN, page 61:

     The boy caught it steady-handed and grinned wide. “Oh good hands, lad!

   • 2005, Maurice Gee, Scornful Moon, →ISBN:

     I moved beside her and was shocked, not by method, not by truth, for it was true, but by her ability to paint clear-eyed, steady-handed, and show this thing.