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With address or dexterity; gracefully; felicitously; in a manner to success; with success. Formed by thy converse, happily to steer From grave to gay, from lively to severe. Pope.

Dexterous; ready; apt; felicitous. One gentleman is happy at a reply, another excels in a in a rejoinder. Swift. Happy family, a collection of animals of different and hostile propensities living peaceably together in one cage. Used ironically of conventional alliances of persons who are in fact mutually repugnant. --…

Skillful; dexterous; clever. [Obs.] Chaucer.

rease; -- said of the moon represented as the new moon, with the points turned toward the dexter side.

Not expert; not skilled; destitute of knowledge or dexterity derived from practice. Akenside.

A readiness in performance; aptness at doing something; skill; facility; dexterity. The fellow . . . has not the knack with his shears. B. Jonson. The dean was famous in his time, And had a kind of knack at rhyme. Swift.

Having the left hand or arm stronger and more dexterous than the right; using the left hand and arm with more dexterity than the right.

Dexterous in taking and conveying away; thievish; pilfering; addicted to petty thefts. Fuller.

Management; dexterous movement; specif., a military or naval evolution, movement, or change of position.

To treat, work, or operate with the hands, especially when knowledge and dexterity are required; to manage in hand work; to handle; as, to manipulate scientific apparatus.

Placed horizontally across the field, as if swimmimg toward the dexter side; said of all sorts of fishes except the flying fish.

A dexterous use or trick of the hand. Addison.

Walking; -- said of any animal on an escutcheon, which is represented as walking with the dexter paw raised.

r material interest, rather than on principles of equity or honor; hence, worldly wisdom; dexterity of management; cunning; stratagem.

Skill or dexterity acquired by use; expertness. [R.] "His nice fence and his active practice." Shak.

Readiness; facility; aptitude. He had such a dexterous proclivity as his teachers were fain to restrain his forwardness. Sir H. Wotton.

eclining from the right top to the left base of the escutcheon (or from sinister chief to dexter base).

; to embarrass; to put to a stand; to nonplus. A very shrewd disputant in those points is dexterous in puzzling others. Dr. H. More. He is perpetually puzzled and perplexed amidst his own blunders. Addison.

Not slow or hesitating; quick in action or perception of any kind; dexterous; prompt; easy; expert; as, a ready apprehension; ready wit; a ready writer or workman. "Ready in devising expedients." Macaulay. Gurth, whose temper was ready, through surly. Sir W. Scott.

The state or quality of being right-handed; hence, skill; dexterity.