Reference > Brewer’s Dictionary > Handle.

 Handkerchief and Sword.Handsome = liberal. 
CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
 
Handle.
 
He has a handle to his name. Some title, as “lord,” “sir,” “doctor.” The French say Monsieur sans queue, a man without a tail (handle to his name).   1
   To give a handle to … . To give grounds for suspicion; as, “He certainly gave a handle to the rumour.”   2
        “He gave a handle to his enemies, and threw stumbling-blocks in the way of his friends.”—Hazlitt: Spirit of the Age (James Macintosh), p. 139.
 


 Handkerchief and Sword.Handsome = liberal. 

 
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