Verb (colloquial). 1. To adjust or proportion weights, starts, etc., in order to bring a number of competitors as nearly as possible to an equality. [[258]]
1841. Lever, Charles O’Malley, ch. lxviii. Pleasant and cheerful enough, when they’re handicapping the coat off your back, and your new tilbury for a spavined pony and a cotton umbrella; but regular devils if you come to cross them the least in life.
2. To make even or level; to equalise between.
3. To embarrass, burden, hinder, or impede in any way.
1883. Grenville-Murray, People I Have Met, 123. He was not handicapped by a title, so that the beautiful ethics of hereditary legislation had no claim on his attention.
Handie-Dandie, subs. phr. (old).—Copulation.
1490–1554. David Lyndsay, Kitty’s Confessioun [Laing], i., 136. Ane plack I will gar Sandie, Gie the agane with Handie-Dandie.
Handle, subs. (common).—1. The nose. For synonyms, see Conk.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. The cove flashes a rare handle to his physog; the fellow has a large nose.
1887. Modern Society, 27 Aug., 864. A restless, intriguing, and busy old lady, with an immense handle to her face.