dirty-handed

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Having unwashed hands.

   • Then the dirty-handed society went off the wash, followed by the Professor, trying to calm the anxiety of Rob, who had been told by Tommy that all water was full of invisible pollywogs.
   • So little time I cannot hope to wash my hands – HELENA : No – VANYA: But must come dirty-handed –
2. 2

   Working-class, rough or boorish

   • Nor, it seems, was disguise a practice in which elites engaged; it was the “dirty-handed” men of action, a onetime convict laborer such as Yu Rang, a former butcher such as Nie Zheng, who disguised their physical identities in this way.
   • ...the educated elite, according to Wiener, has become increasingly anti-industrial, increasingly ashamed of the materialism and money-grubbing of dirty-handed industry, increasingly hostile to technological progress and economic growth.
3. 3

   Guilty, corrupt

   • There were plenty of dirty-handed men in the world to do dirty business; and Will protested to himself that his share in bringing Mr. Brooke through would be quite innocent.
   • As another CIA officer, Bill Harvey, remarked, 'No one wanted to charge the president personally with the complete, dirty-handed details of the assassination plans.
   • Crooked law enforcement, corrupt lawmakers, dirty-handed and hypocritical adjudicators and other miscellaneous murky state and Federal government officials.

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