a. [f. med.L. ambidexter + -OUS.] = AMBIDEXTER.
1. Able to use both hands alike.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 188. Not considering ambidextrous and left handed men.
1752. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Women, according to the observation of Hippocrates, are never ambidextrous.
1878. Bryant, Pract. Surg., I. 340. Every ophthalmic surgeon should … become ambidextrous.
2. fig. More than usually dextrous, or clever.
1682. Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor. (1756), 117. Many, who are sinistrous unto good actions, are ambi-dexterous unto bad.
1844. Blackw. Mag., LVI. 54. O many-sided, ambidextrous Goethe.
3. Acting in two opposite directions; and in a bad sense: Double-dealing; humoring both parties.
1654. Gataker, Disc. Apol., 77. An ambidextrous Trick … of divers persons in the same familie adhering some to one partie and some to another.
a. 1768. Sterne, Pol. Romance (1774), 316. A little, dirty, pimping, pettifogging, ambidextrous fellow.
a. 1847. Chalmers, Posth. Wks., I. 22. Rebuking Peter for his ambidextrous policy between Jews and Gentiles.
1858. J. Martineau, Stud. Chr., 279. It would be hypercritical to complain of the antithesis of understanding and feeling, sense and soul. But to an exact thinker … an ambidextrous intellect is no intellect at all.
