dexterous

• dextrous (British)

From Latin dexter (“right, ready”) +‎ -ous. Displaced native Old English handcræftiġ.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɛkstɹəs/

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• Rhymes: -ɛkstɹəs

dexterous (comparative more dexterous, superlative most dexterous)

1. Skillful with one's hands.
   • 1960, John Updike, 'Rabbit, Run', page 57:

     She is pleasingly dexterous with the chopsticks, and keeps one hand lying palm up on her lap. Pinched with just the right pressure between the sticks; funny how plump women have that delicate touch.

2. Skillful in some specific thing.
   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC:

     We went frequently out with this boat a-fishing; and as I was most dexterous to catch fish for him, he never went without me.

3. Agile; flexible; able to move fluidly and gracefully.
4. (figurative, archaic) Skilled at argumentation; mentally skillful.
   • 1775, speech by Edmund Burke

     […] the study [of law] renders men acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in defense […]

• ambidextrous
• dexter
• dexterity

• adroit
• active
• expert
• skillful
• clever
• able
• ready
• apt
• handy
• versed

• “dexterous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “dexterous”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “dexterous”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Exoduster