a. [CROSS- 11.] Having the hands crossed; commonly used advb.

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1836.  W. Irving, Astoria, I. 165. The merchant fishermen … passed the objects of traffic, as it were, cross-handed.

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1882.  N. Brooks, in Century Mag., XXIV. 708/1. The gaunt women … [are] rowing ‘cross-handed.’

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