A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

left-hand • left-handed
left-hand —
1
. said of smth. situated on the left side: Carry
on past the school and take the left hand turning towards
Heddington. 2. said of a car with left-hand steering: By the
way, it’s kind of weird drive a left-hand car in a left-hand side
lane (a continental car in UK). 3. (of bidirectional traffic) keep-
ing to the left side of the road: Countries that use left-hand
traffic account for about 30 percent of the world’s population,
a sixth of its area and a quarter of its roads.
left-handed —
1
. using the left hand for writing, etc.: When
a left-handed person tries to write like a right-handed person,
it doesn’t work. 2. (of things) designed to be used in the left
hand: With properly designed left handed scissors, your nat-
ural cutting action matches that of the scissors. 3. (in the phrase
“left-handed compliment”)—a statement that sounds like praise
but has an insulting meaning: I wasn’t sure if it was a left-
handed compliment or his usual condescension.
left-hand man • left-handed man
left-hand man —one’s associate who is not really important
or effective (a play on the expression “right-hand man”— a per-
son’s chief assistant): When he attempted to characterize me as
Gritz’s “right-hand man,” I hastened to point out that I barely
qualified as his “left-hand man.”
left-handed man —a man who uses chiefly the left hand for
ordinary tasks: College-educated left-handed men earn almost
1
5 percent more on average than right-handed men with sim-
ilar educations.
leg-show • show a leg
leg-show— a theatrical performance by scantily-dressed
women: At a leg-show of these days you saw far less of the
female form than is now exhibited in the streets.
show a leg —is used to urge people to get up or do smth.
with more effort: In the morning, the boatswain’s mate would
awaken the crew with the cry “show a leg.”