handy
part of speech
adjective (handy, handier, handiest)
meaning for a pupil
1) Useful and easy to use. tree →
2) Near and easy to reach: «Keep a torch handy». tree →
3) Good at doing things with your hands. tree →
4) «come in handy»: be useful later. tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life: «a handy tip», «handy for the shops» (close by). In safety: keep a first-aid kit handy. «Come in handy» is very common in speech.
examples
- This pocket knife is really handy. tree →
- Keep your water bottle handy. tree →
- Our house is handy for the school. tree →
- Dad is handy with tools. tree →
- Save the string — it might come in handy. tree →
- Here's a handy tip for long division. tree →
- "I am not taking the hammer because I think there is something there," said he, "but it is handy for breaking the large lumps of coal." tree →
note
Comparative: handier, handiest. Informal but widely used. «Handyman» = a person who does repairs.
In the corpora
- English has one handy «yes» and one «no».
- A handy trick to practise it: say "k", then slide back into a soft, breathy scrape.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «handy» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.