Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
adjective
- able to use both hands equally well: an ambidextrous surgeon.
- unusually skillful; facile: an ambidextrous painter, familiar with all media.
- double-dealing; deceitful.
- Slang. bisexual.
adjective
- equally expert with each hand
- informal highly skilled or adept
- underhanded; deceitful
1640s, with -ous, from ambidexter (adj.) “double-dealing” (1610s), from French ambidextre or directly from Latin ambidexter, literally “right-handed on both sides,” from ambi– “both” (see ambi-) + dexter “right-handed” (see dexterity). Its opposite, ambilevous “left-handed on both sides, clumsy” (1640s) is rare. Ambidexter as a noun, “one who takes bribes from both sides,” is attested from 1530s and is the earliest form of the word in English; its sense of “one who uses both hands equally well” appears by 1590s.
adj.
- Able to use both hands with equal facility.