empty-handedness

See also: emptyhandedness

English

Etymology

empty-handed +‎ -ness

Noun

empty-handedness (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of emptyhandedness
   • 2014, John Cheever, Falconer, →ISBN:

     'I ain't stole nothing of his.' He made a broad gesture with his arms to demonstrate his empty-handedness.

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick:

     For in their succourless empty-handedness, they, in the heathenish sharked waters, and by the beaches of unrecorded, javelin islands, battled with virgin wonders and terrors that Cook with all his marines and muskets would not willingly have dared.

   • 2013, Karen J. Pine, Simonne Gnessen, Sheconomics, →ISBN:

     On the other hand, let's say you've assumed the two of you aren't on gift giving terms yet. Then, out of the blue, your empty-handedness is met by a lavish gift.

   • 2007, David Valdes Greenwood, A Little Fruitcake: A Childhood in Holidays, →ISBN:

     When I got inside and started stripping off my coat and boots, she greeted me, curious about my empty-handedness. “You didn't find a tree?”

   • 1977, Bailey Wallys Diffie, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415-1580, →ISBN, page 266:

     His enemies, of course, were quick to inform the king of his empty-handedness upon his return, and no doubt their interpretation that the expedition had been a total failure was believed by the king.

   • 2011, George Mattson, The Way of Karate, →ISBN:

     It is the cultivation of "empty-handedness," allowing the whole body and the mental energy to be devoted in a single pointed way, though operating through different movements, toward resisting violence without the intention of destroying the opponent.