JUG HANDLE (ALL TO ONE SIDE)

[Mark A. Mandel]

Barry writes:

        >>>
JUG HANDLE (ALL TO ONE SIDE)

I found this by accident while looking for "God."

(OED)
to a floating jug or bottle (Cent. Dict.); jug handle, the handle of a jug;
also attrib. and fig., shaped like a jug handle; hence jug-handled a., (a)
lit. placed on one side, as the handle of a jug; (b) fig. (U.S.) unilateral,
one-sided, unbalanced.

1846 S. F. SMITH Theatr. Apprenticeship 118 Not perceiving the entire
justice of this arrangement, it being somewhat on the *jug-handle principle,
all on one side. 1900 E. GLYN Visits of Elizabeth 245 She has a jug-handle
chignon. 1955 M. E. B. BANKS Commando Climber iii. 38 A final wall, almost
vertical but amply provided with the largest of jug-handles, remained. 1961
L. MUMFORD City in Hist. xvi. 506 To ensure the continuous flow of
traffic,..immense clover leaves and jug handles are designed. 1967 R. J.
SERLING President's Plane is Missing (1968) ii. 27 He was one of those
homely men whose virile masculinity masked such features as a big nose and
jug-handle ears. 1970 A. BLACKSHAW Mountaineering (rev. ed.) vi. 163 A large
incut hold (a jug-handle) in good rock is the most secure of all holds.
        <<<

The 1846 quote, and possibly but not clearly the 1900 one, are relevant to
the 'all to one side' meaning, but the others are not. 1961 refers to a
connecting ramp between roadways, a noun which I have known since the 1950s.
(My access to OED Online is currently down so I can't tell whether they have
this sense.) 1967/1968 is 'shaped like a jug handle' and clearly NOT all to
one side. 1970 is another meaning, defined in the quotation itself, which
1955 also evidently uses.

Come to think of it, these nitpicks are probably unnecessary. Barry finds
and sends us so much stuff that he probably just didn't have the time to
sort through and delete the irrelevant citations here.

-- Mark A. Mandel
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]