For a garden cutting appliance which can be handled one-handedly by a user, in particular battery-operated shears, it is proposed to make a handle arrangement displaceable in relation to a motor housing (MG) about a pivot axis (SA) which is approximately perpendicular to the cutting plane of the blade arrangement (MA) of the cutting appliance. Advantageously, the pivot axis (SA) is inclined through an inclination angle between 3° and 20° with respect to the direction of the surface normal so that, in a first operating position, in which the handle (HG) partially overlaps the blade arrangement (MA) in projection onto the cutting plane (ME), the handle (HG) assumes a greater spacing from the cutting plane than in a second operating position, in which the handle (HG) is located on that side of the pivot axis (SA) that is remote from the blade arrangement (MA).
