[f. prec. + -ITY, after dexterity.]
1. The power of using both hands alike.
a. 1652. Brome, Court Beggar, I. i. 191. Some Tellers Clearke to teach you Ambo-dexterity in telling money.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Plato enjoins Ambidexterity to be observed and encouraged in his republic.
1881. Times, 2 Feb., 10/5. The single-stick play … was remarkable for its ambidexterity.
2. fig. Superior dexterity or cleverness; shiftiness or general readiness; manysidedness.
1760. Sterne, Trist. Shandy, III. xxxvii. 103. Speculative subtilty or ambidexterity of argumentation.
1804. W. Taylor, in Ann. Rev., II. 278. The idiomatic ambidexterity of a patriot of both countries.
1858. De Quincey, Autobiog. Sk., Wks. II. ii. 76. Presence of mind, and a general ambidexterity of powers for facing all accidents.
3. Double-dealing.
1755. in Johnson.
1841. D’Israeli, Amen. Lit. (1859), I. 362. That intricate net of general misery, spun out of his own crafty ambidexterity.
