1. Using or intended for the left hand
   "left-handed golfers need left-handed clubs"; "left-handed scissors"
    
2. Lacking physical movement skills, especially with the hands
   "a left-handed mechanic";
   - bumbling, bungling, butterfingered, ham-fisted, ham-handed, handless, heavy-handed
    
3. (Chemistry) rotating polarized light to the left
   "The left-handed molecules were separated from the mixture";
   - levorotary [US], levorotatory [N. Amer], laevorotatory [Brit, Cdn]
    
4. Ironically ambiguous
   "a left-handed compliment"
    
5. (of marriages) illicit or informal
   "in Colonial America left-handed marriages between Frenchmen and Indians were frequent"
    
6. (of marriages) of a marriage between one of royal or noble birth and one of lower rank; valid but with the understanding that the rank of the inferior remains unchanged and offspring do not succeed to titles or property of the superior
   "The prince's left-handed marriage caused a stir in royal circles";
   - morganatic

See also: ambiguous, anticlockwise [Brit], contraclockwise [non-standard], counterclockwise [N. Amer], illegitimate, left, left-hand, legitimate, maladroit, sinistral

Antonym: ambidextrous, right-handed

Encyclopedia: Left-handed