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A piece of cloth, usually square and often fine and elegant, carried for wiping the face or hands.

To touch; to feel with the hand; to use or hold with the hand. Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh. Luke xxiv. 39. About his altar, handling holy things. Milton.

Capable of being handled.

Without a hand. Shak.

A touching, controlling, managing, using, etc., with the hand or hands, or as with the hands. See Handle, v. t. The heavens and your fair handling Have made you master of the field this day. Spenser.

Manufactured by hand; as, handmade shoes.

A maid that waits at hand; a female servant or attendant.

A saw used with one hand.

A sale, gift, or delivery into the hand of another; especially, a sale, gift, delivery, or using which is the first of a series, and regarded as on omen for the rest; a first installment; an earnest; as the first money received for the sale of goods in the morning, the first money taken at a shop newly opened, the firs…

Dexterous; skillful; handy; ready; convenient; -- applied to things as persons. [Obs.] That they [engines of war] be both easy to be carried and handsome to be moved and turned about. Robynson (Utopia). For a thief it is so handsome as it may seem it was first invented for him. Spenser.

In a handsome manner.

The quality of being handsome. Handsomeness is the mere animal excellence, beauty the mere imaginative. Hare.

A bar or lever, generally of wood, used in a windlass or capstan, for heaving anchor, and, in modified forms, for various purposes.

A somersault made with the assistance of the hands placed upon the ground.

Any wheel worked by hand; esp., one the rim of which serves as the handle by which a valve, car brake, or other part is adjusted.

The cast or form of writing peculiar to each hand or person; chirography.

Performed by the hand. [Obs.] To draw up and come to handy strokes. Milton.

A child's play, one child guessing in which closed hand the other holds some small object, winning the object if right and forfeiting an equivalent if wrong; hence, forfeit. Piers Plowman.

A fight with the hands; boxing. "Pollux loves handyfights." B. Jonson.

Seizure by, or grasp of, the hand; also, close quarters in fighting. Hudibras.