high-handed

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Triggering the administration’s nuclear response on Friday was Anthropic’s high-handed refusal to give the Defense Department carte blanche to use its technology as it sees fit.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 1, 2026

One official who was involved and spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid facing retribution said they were disgusted by the request’s “brazenness and the high-handed expectation of complicity.”

From Salon • Nov. 19, 2025

But that relationship will always be hostage to events; either a flare-up in the South China Sea, or any other act by China seen as high-handed by the Vietnamese.

From BBC • Dec. 11, 2023

Britain did try that divorce once, in the mid-1600s, when parliamentary forces cut off the head of the high-handed King Charles I, and replaced him with a Commonwealth led by a politician-soldier named Oliver Cromwell.

From Los Angeles Times • May 9, 2023

She wasn’t sure she liked Fabyan, whose high-handed ways reminded her of her father.

From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield