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Difficulty: MediumCompound Words

During the team briefing, the new project lead was criticized for her high-handed behavior toward senior staff members. In this context, what does the word high-handed most nearly mean?

  1. A
    Elevated and upright
  2. B
    Fair and impartial
  3. Arrogant and overbearingAnswer
  4. D
    Skilled and dexterous

Answer

Arrogant and overbearing
'High-handed' is a compound adjective used to describe someone who exercises authority or power in an arbitrary, dictatorial, and overbearing manner without consulting others or considering their feelings. In the workplace context described, criticism arose because the project lead acted arrogantly toward senior colleagues.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the context of the sentence and identify the target compound word.
The target word is the hyphenated compound adjective 'high-handed', describing a leader who received criticism for her demeanor toward colleagues.
Determining the word's syntactic role and contextual clues helps establish its connotative tone.
2
Deconstruct the compound word and distinguish its figurative compound definition from literal components.
While 'high' and 'handed' individually suggest an elevated physical position, the combined compound adjective denotes acting in an authoritarian, condescending, or overbearing manner.
Many compound adjectives have specialized idiomatic meanings that transcend literal component definitions.
3
Evaluate the answer choices to identify the true synonym while eliminating common compound misconceptions.
'Arrogant and overbearing' precisely matches the meaning of 'high-handed'.
The correct choice must capture both the assertive and disregardful nature of the behavior in the given context.

Key Concept

Compound words frequently develop unified figurative or idiomatic meanings that differ significantly from the literal sum of their component words.
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Topics

Compound Words

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