forehand

From fore- + hand.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /fɔːhænd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /fɔːɹhænd/

forehand (plural forehands)

2. (racket sports) A stroke in which the palm of the hand faces the direction of the stroke.

   Antonym: backhand

   the devastating speed of her forehand return

3. (disc sports) A throw similar to a sidearm throw in baseball, where the disc remains on the throwing-arm side of the body and is led by the middle finger.

   Synonym: flick

4. All of the part of a horse which is before the rider.
   • 1618, Michel Baret, An Hipponomie […] :

     […] those horses which are of a chicke Forehand, short necked

5. (archaic) The chief or most important part.
   • 1602, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, act 1, scene 3:

     The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns / The sinew and the forehand of our host

6. Superiority; advantage; start; precedence.
   • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     And, but for ceremony such a wretch,
     Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,
     Had the forehand and vantage of a king

8. (surfing) The hand towards the front of the board.

   Antonym: backhand

forehand (not comparable)

1. Beforehand; paid in advance.

   a forehand rent

• afterhand

forehand (third-person singular simple present forehands, present participle forehanding, simple past and past participle forehanded)

1. (transitive) To strike with a forehand stroke.