off-handed, adj. (and adv.) : Oxford English Dictionary; OED3 View

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off-handed, a.

a. = off-hand B.: esp. in reference to style or manner. (In quot. 1840 irreg. as adv. = off-hand A. 1.) o-x-x-u-r

1835 T. Moore Diary 15 Aug. in Mem. (1856) VII. 103 Found Babbage very off-handed and agreeable.o-u-x-u-u 1840 R. H. Barham Ingol. Leg., Hand of Glory 1st Ser. 44 Nor, I'll venture to say, without scrutiny cou'd he Pronounce her, off-handed, a Punch or a Judy.o-u-x-u-r 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 182 He's an off-handed chap.o-u-x-u-r

b. Mining. = offhand adj. 4.x-o-u-u-r

1846 W. E. Brockett J. T. Brockett's Gloss. North Country Words (ed. 3) II. 59 All workmen about a coal-pit are said to be off-handed who are not engaged in the business of hewing and putting the coal.x-x-o-u-u 1906 Daily Chron. 16 Oct. 5/2 The ‘off-handed’ men..dispersed into the four seams of the pit.x-o-u-u-u

Hence ˌoff-ˈhandedly adv., in an off-handed manner, in a free and easy style, without ceremony; ˌoff-ˈhandedness, the quality of being off-handed. o-x-x-u-r

1823 New Monthly Mag. VIII. 364 There is in them‥an open off-handedness (to use a significant Irishism).o-u-x-u-u 1883 F. M. Peard Contrad. xix, He was quite conscious of the off-handedness of Dorothy's manner.o-u-x-u-x 1886 19th Cent. Oct. 541 The newspaper moralisers speak off-handedly of the skilled workman earning his two or three pounds a week.x-o-u-u-x 1893 G. Allen Scallywag I. 40 Isabel Boyton answered a little offhandedly.o-u-x-u-x 1905 G. B. Shaw Let. 3 Jan. (1972) II. 485 At my third meeting I was asked to take the chair. I consented as offhandedly as if I were the Speaker of the House of Commons.x-x-o-u-u 1973 J. Wainwright Pride of Pigs 123 He could have felt sorry for Fuller‥to be systematically, off-handedly squashed.x-x-o-u-x