# hand

Pronunciation: say "HAND" /hænd/

## Noun

1. The part of the arm below the wrist in a human, with the palm, fingers, and thumb, and the matching part in many other animals.
   - Simple: The part at the end of your arm that you hold things with, with fingers and a thumb.
   - _She waved a hand at the crowd._
   - _Wash your hands before dinner._
3. A person's part in doing something, through their action, involvement or influence.
   - Simple: The part someone plays in making something happen.
   - _Police believe a former employee had a hand in the theft._
   - _Investigators concluded that the fire was set by human hand, not by lightning._
4. Possession, control, or care, chiefly in the plural (in good hands; the matter is out of my hands).
   - Simple: The control or care of someone, as in 'The children are in good hands.'
   - _The matter is in the lawyers' hands now._
   - _Who has the upper hand in the talks?_
5. A side or direction, right or left; a party or camp.
   - Simple: One side or direction, or one side of an argument or choice.
   - _On the one hand it is cheap, on the other hand it is slow._
   - _Hills rose on both hands as the road climbed._
6. An instance of helping someone.
   - Simple: Some help with a job or task.
   - _Thanks for the hand with the move._
   - _Lend a hand, don't just stand there._
10. A pointer on a dial, such as one on the face of a clock, used to show the time.
   - Simple: A moving pointer on a clock or dial.
   - _The hour hand is the short one._
   - _The hands on the station clock were stuck at ten past four._
11. The set of cards held by a player in a card game.
   - Simple: The cards a player is holding in a card game.
   - _With a hand like that, you should bet._
   - _Both players showed their hands, and each had a pair of kings._
7. A worker, servant or manual laborer, or one trained for a special duty, often in compounds.
   - Simple: A worker, often used after a word that says where they work.
   - _The ranch took on an extra hand for the harvest._
   - _All hands were called to the pumps._
8. Ability in carrying out a task, especially practiced skill or dexterity.
   - Simple: Skill or ability at doing something.
   - _After retiring, my uncle decided to try his hand at woodworking._
   - _Keep your hand in by playing every day._
12. A round of applause.
   - Simple: Clapping to show you liked someone's performance.
   - _Please give a big hand to our guest speaker this evening._
   - _The youngest singer got the biggest hand of the night._
13. One round of a card game, in which a single deal is played out.
   - Simple: A single round of play in a card game.
   - _The whole hand took two minutes._
   - _After six hands the stakes were doubled._
9. Agency in the transmission of something from one person to another.
   - Simple: The step by which something passes from one person to the next.
   - _The story came to me at third hand._
   - _This old violin has passed through many hands over the past century._
14. Chiefly in the negative plural, a hand free to help, especially when one is already holding things. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A free hand to help with, mostly used with 'no' or 'not'.
   - _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. A unit of length equal to four inches, used chiefly in measuring the height of horses.
   - Simple: A unit of four inches, used to measure how tall horses are.
   - _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._
16. A promise or one's word, especially a promise of marriage.
   - Simple: A promise to do something, especially to get married.
   - _He asked her father for her hand._
   - _She promised him her hand, and they were married in the spring._
17. A person's handwriting, or their signature.
   - Simple: The way a person writes by hand, or their name signed on a paper.
   - _The letter was in an unfamiliar hand._
   - _The letter was signed in a shaky hand that her grandson could barely recognize._
18. Something that resembles a human hand, or that does at least part of the job a human hand does.
   - Simple: Something that looks like a human hand or does some of the work of one.
   - _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._
19. A person who is more or less skilled at something, often with at.
   - Simple: A person who is skilled or unskilled at something, often with 'at'.
   - _Grandfather was a great hand at mending clocks._
   - _New hands make mistakes that old hands don't._
20. A bunch of bananas as typically sold, the individual fruits being called fingers.
   - Simple: A bunch of bananas joined together, as sold in a shop.
   - _Each hand is cut from the bunch on the stalk._
   - _Two hands of bananas filled the bowl._
21. A whole rhizome of ginger, with its knobbly branches.
   - Simple: A whole root of ginger, with its branches like fingers.
   - _The market sold ginger by the hand._
   - _The market stall had baskets full of fresh hands of ginger._

## Verb

2. To give, pass or transmit something to someone, literally or figuratively.
   - Simple: To pass something to someone, or to give them something such as a job or a chance.
   - _Please hand your tickets to the usher._
   - _The coach handed the job of team captain to the youngest player._
22. To lead, guide or help someone by the hand; to conduct.
   - Simple: To guide or help someone along by holding them.
   - _Let me hand you across the stream._
   - _The usher handed the old man to his seat._

## Noun

23. A unit of linear measurement equal to three inches. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A unit for measuring length, equal to three inches.

## Other meanings

- (noun) The feel of a fabric, its quality as judged by touch.
- (noun) Whatever is held, or can be held, in one hand at one time.
- (noun) On a gunstock, the small part near the lock that is grasped when taking aim.
- (noun) In tobacco manufacturing, a bundle of leaves tied together.
- (verb) On a ship, to furl a sail.
- (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.
- (noun) The rate or price at which something is bought or sold.
- (verb) To handle or wield something with the hands, such as an oar.
- (verb) To take hold of someone or something, or to grab it.
- (verb) To promise or engage someone, especially in marriage, by joining palms.
- (verb) To work together with others.

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 3–21, 23** — This comes from Middle English "hond" or "hand," from Old English "hand," going back through Proto-West Germanic to Proto-Germanic "*handuz." Related forms appear in other Germanic languages, such as Dutch and Swedish "hand," Danish "hånd," and German "Hand."
**Meanings 2, 22** — The verb has two sources. One is Middle English handen, made from the noun. The other is henden, from Old English ġehendan, meaning "to seize by hand, grasp, hold," which goes back through Proto-West Germanic *handijan to Proto-Germanic *handijaną. Old Frisian handa, Dutch handen, and Old Norse henda ("to grasp, seize") are cognates.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/hand (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).