hand

Less common meanings

10. 10
    clock pointernouncountable

    A pointer on a dial, such as one on the face of a clock, used to show the time.

    The hour hand is the short one.

    The hands on the station clock were stuck at ten past four.

    UsageNamed by what they show: the hour hand, the minute hand, the second hand.

    Similarpointer, needle

11. 11
    cards heldnouncountable

    The set of cards held by a player in a card game.

    With a hand like that, you should bet.

    Both players showed their hands, and each had a pair of kings.

    Note

    Card players took the word from what a hand holds at once: the cards dealt to one player. Words of quality gather around it, as in a strong hand, a weak hand, or a hand worth betting on. Those words are the surest sign that this meaning is intended rather than a round of play.

12. 12
    applausenouncountable

    A round of applause.

    Please give a big hand to our guest speaker this evening.

    The youngest singer got the biggest hand of the night.

    UsageUsually give someone a big hand; a performer gets a hand.

    Similarovation, applause, round, clap

    Note

    Clapping is named for what does the clapping, and it can be counted like a prize: a performer gets a hand, a big hand, or one of the biggest hands of the evening. In Thackeray's Pendennis, Foker states the rule plainly, “every chap likes a hand,” and his companions start clapping. The same give frame doubles as an offer of help. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Pendennis is a work by William Makepeace Thackeray. gutenberg.org
    • Foker says the exact words 'every chap likes a hand'. gutenberg.org
    • Foker and the other young men begin clapping after his remark. gutenberg.org
13. 13
    round (cards)nouncountable

    One round of a card game, in which a single deal is played out.

    The whole hand took two minutes.

    After six hands the stakes were doubled.

    Similarround, deal

    Note

    Counting and sequence words mark the round: three hands of whist, after six hands, the last hand of the night. Both meanings live at the same card table, so one sentence can carry the pair, as in she held a winning hand in the final hand. The counting word tells the reader which is which.

14. 14
    free to helpnouncolloquialcountable

    Chiefly in the negative plural, a hand free to help, especially when one is already holding things.

    Can someone get the door for me? I've got no hands with all these bags.

    "Grab my phone, would you? I don't have a free hand," she said, carrying the tray.

15. 15
    horse heightnouncountable

    A unit of length equal to four inches, used chiefly in measuring the height of horses.

    The mare measures sixteen hands at the withers, a full hand taller than her dam.

    The vet recorded the gelding's height as fifteen hands.

    UsageA number comes first, often followed by high: a horse sixteen hands high.

    Note

    The horseman's unit, still the one used for a horse's height: a hand's breadth fixed at four inches. A number comes first and high usually follows, as when Orwell's Boxer stands “nearly eighteen hands high.” Worked out, that makes Boxer about six feet at the withers, which is why Orwell can call him an enormous beast. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • The hand originated in a hand's breadth and is standardized at four inches. en.wikipedia.org
    • The measurement was originally based on the breadth of a human hand. en.wikipedia.org
    • George Orwell's narrator describes Boxer in Animal Farm as nearly eighteen hands high. gutenberg.net.au
    • Nearly eighteen hands amounts to about six feet, measured at the withers: eighteen times four inches equals seventy-two inches. amnh.org
    • Orwell describes Boxer as an enormous beast. gutenberg.net.au
16. 16
    marriage promisenouncountable

    A promise or one's word, especially a promise of marriage.

    He asked her father for her hand.

    She promised him her hand, and they were married in the spring.

    UsageToday mostly in ask for someone's hand, or ask for her hand in marriage.

    Note

    A promise given with the hand, and the reason a proposal still asks for someone's hand. The pledge once reached well beyond marriage. In The Works of Aphra Behn, an English governor “had given his Hand” to come on a set day, and his absence was mourned as though only death could explain it. William Carleton calls such a vow a hand-promise, one whose breaking left few willing to trust a man's word. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • The pledge and marriage senses derive from giving or raising the hand when making promises. cdn.wildapricot.com
    • Giving one's hand could signify a promise unrelated to marriage. gutenberg.org
    • The Works of Aphra Behn contains the exact words 'had given his Hand', describing an English governor's promise to visit on a particular day. gutenberg.org
    • The narrator in Behn's Oroonoko says the governor was mourned because only death was thought capable of preventing fulfillment of his promise. gutenberg.org
    • William Carleton describes a marriage vow as a hand-promise in Going to Maynooth. gutenberg.org
    • Carleton says few would rely on such a man's word or oath; 'all trust' overstates his claim. gutenberg.org
17. 17
    writing stylenouncountable

    A person's handwriting, or their signature.

    The letter was in an unfamiliar hand.

    The letter was signed in a shaky hand that her grandson could barely recognize.

    UsageUsually with in and an adjective: written in a shaky hand, in a clear hand.

    Similarhandwriting, script, writing

    Note

    Handwriting counts here as personal property, which is why it can identify its writer. In Shakespeare's As You Like It, a character reads authorship in the writing itself: “This is a man's invention, and his hand.” Fielding, in 1749, notes that the law counts a mere resemblance of hands as poor evidence, and jokes that poets are convicted of theft on worse. Adjectives of legibility attach to it: Treasure Island's message comes “in a very good, clear hand.” Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • A person's characteristic handwriting can help identify its writer. nist.gov
    • In William Shakespeare's As You Like It, Rosalind attributes a letter to a man using the quoted words. gutenberg.org
    • The Fielding passage is from Tom Jones, first published in 1749. en.wikisource.org
    • Fielding compares accusations of literary theft with the weak legal evidence provided by resemblance between specimens of handwriting. gutenberg.org
    • Treasure Island describes the black-spot message as written 'in a very good, clear hand'; the description occurs in Jim Hawkins's narration. gutenberg.org
18. 18
    nouncountable

    Something that resembles a human hand, or that does at least part of the job a human hand does.

    Surgeons fitted her with a prosthetic hand that responds to signals from the muscles in her arm.

    A painted hand on the weathered sign pointed travelers toward the ferry dock.

    Note

    Two routes lead to this meaning, and they are worth telling apart: looking like a hand, and doing a hand's work. Shape gives a bunch of bananas, whose single fruits are called fingers, so the metaphor brings its vocabulary along with it. Work gives a prosthetic hand, which need not look human, and the hands of a clock, which do the pointing a finger would. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • The banana-hand metaphor refers to the fruits' resemblance to fingers. kids.frontiersin.org
    • Individual banana fruits within a hand are called fingers. cms.ctahr.hawaii.edu
    • A prosthetic hand can perform hand functions without resembling a human hand. arxiv.org
    • Clock hands function as pointers indicating time on a dial. en.wikipedia.org
19. 19
    skilled personnouncountable

    A person who is more or less skilled at something, often with at.

    Grandfather was a great hand at mending clocks.

    New hands make mistakes that old hands don't.

    UsageUsually with an adjective, and at for the skill: an old hand, a great hand at mending clocks.

    Note

    Skill is judged in the person, and the word rarely appears without an adjective: an old hand, a lively hand, a great hand. The activity follows with at, as in being “reckoned a lively hand at a simile.” It can also follow with to plus a verb, as in Lorimer's Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to his Son: “a great hand to play the piano.” Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • The quoted wording “reckoned a lively hand at a simile” is attested. essays.quotidiana.org
    • George Horace Lorimer wrote Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son. gutenberg.org
    • The book contains the exact phrase “a great hand to play the piano.” gutenberg.org
20. 20
    banana bunchnouncollectivecountable

    A bunch of bananas as typically sold, the individual fruits being called fingers.

    Each hand is cut from the bunch on the stalk.

    Two hands of bananas filled the bowl.

    Similarbunch, cluster

    Note

    The metaphor runs all the way down: the bunch is a hand and each banana is a finger, so a hand of six fingers is a perfectly ordinary purchase. Ginger borrows the same picture. There, the whole rhizome is the hand, and a piece broken off is a finger. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • A retail bunch of bananas is called a hand, and individual bananas are called fingers. en.wiktionary.org
    • Six bananas can constitute an ordinary purchase; six is an illustrative quantity. law.resource.org
    • A whole ginger rhizome is called a hand. en.wiktionary.org
    • The smaller pieces separated from a ginger hand are called fingers. lovethegarden.com
21. 21
    ginger rootnouncountable

    A whole rhizome of ginger, with its knobbly branches.

    The market sold ginger by the hand.

    The market stall had baskets full of fresh hands of ginger.

    Similarroot, rhizome

22. 22
    guide someoneverbtransitive

    To lead, guide or help someone by the hand; to conduct.

    Let me hand you across the stream.

    The usher handed the old man to his seat.

    Similarhelp, guide, assist, lead, escort

    Note

    Here the object is a person, and a direction usually follows: to hand a lady into a carriage, to hand someone up the steps or across a stream. That directional phrase separates it from the giving verb, whose object is the thing passed over.

23. 23
    three-inch unitnounobsolete

    A unit of linear measurement equal to three inches.

    Note

    An obsolete reckoning that set the hand at three inches rather than four. Anyone reading old measures given in hands should check which value is meant, because the shorter hand makes every figure a quarter smaller. In modern writing, a reader will only ever assume the horseman's four-inch hand. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • An obsolete hand measured three inches. en.wiktionary.org
    • For the same number of hands, using three inches instead of four gives a length one quarter smaller: 3/4 = 0.75. en.wikipedia.org
    • The standard hand used for horses equals four inches. en.wikipedia.org
24. 24
    noun

    The feel of a fabric, its quality as judged by touch.
25. 25
    noun

    Whatever is held, or can be held, in one hand at one time.
26. 26
    noun

    On a gunstock, the small part near the lock that is grasped when taking aim.
27. 27
    noun

    In tobacco manufacturing, a bundle of leaves tied together.
28. 28
    verb

    On a ship, to furl a sail.
29. 29
    noun

    A Native American guessing and gambling game, still played, in which one team hides small pieces in its hands and the other team guesses where they are.
30. 30
    nounobsolete

    The rate or price at which something is bought or sold.

    For Time is the meaſure of Buſineſſe, as Money is of Wares: And Buſineſſe is bought at a deare Hand, where there is ſmall diſpatch.

    1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Dispatch. XXV.”
31. 31
    verbobsolete

    To handle or wield something with the hands, such as an oar.

    I bleſs my Chain, I hand my Oar, / Nor think on all I left on Shoar.

    1709, Mat[thew] Prior, “The Lady's Looking-Glass”
32. 32
    verbobsolete

    To take hold of someone or something, or to grab it.

    wee will not hand a rope more

    1610, William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”
33. 33
    verbrare

    To promise or engage someone, especially in marriage, by joining palms.
34. 34
    verbobsolete

    To work together with others.