fore-handed

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

To be fore-handed is to be in good circumstances; to be comfortably off. The expression is much used in the interior parts of the country.


Many of the new houses which have been built, have been built by mechanics, fore-handed men, as we say in New England, who have accumulated small sums.--Providence Journal.

Mrs. Ainsworth made so long a visit among her Eastern friends, who are now fore-handed folks, that she has come back imbued most satisfactorily with a loving appreciation of the advantages of civilization.--Mrs. Clavers, Forest Life, Vol. I. p. 50.

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