A good (or cool, neat, old, fine, etc.) hand, subs. phr. (colloquial).—An expert.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.), s.v. Hand (v.). ‘He is a good hand,’ spoke of one that is an artist in some particular mechanical art or trade, etc. [[256]]
1773. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, iii., 1. When I was in my best story of the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene, he asked if I had not a good hand at making punch.
1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, xii. A quaint boy at Eton, cool hand at Oxford, a deep card in the regiment, man or woman never yet had the best of ‘Uppy.’
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, i., p. 33. The new man, the green hand, takes little or no heed of the entrance of the officers.… Not so the old hand.
1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 195. Ye’re a grand hand at the sleeping!
1892. W. E. Gladstone, Times ‘Report.’… This old Parliamentary hand.
1892. Henley and Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, i., 7, p. 18. You always was a neat hand with the bones.
A hand like a foot, phr. (common).—A large, coarse hand. Also a vulgar or uneducated handwriting.
1738. Swift, Polite Conversation, i. Col. Whoe’er writ it with a hand like a foot.