handle
Verbhandles, handling, handled
Noun pluralhandles
Formshandles, handling, handled
Pluralhandles
- 1To manage, control, or direct something.
The new manager handles all scheduling for the department.
Volunteers handle ticket sales throughout the festival weekend.
Similarmanage, run, oversee, administer, direct
- 2To treat or deal with someone or something in a particular way.
The diplomat handled the tense negotiation with remarkable tact.
Front-desk staff are trained to handle complaints calmly.
UsageTakes its object directly, often with the manner: handle a complaint calmly or with tact. Compare deal with a complaint.
Similartreat, tackle, approach
Note
Elizabethan drama could leave the manner unspoken and menacing. Marlowe's Tamburlaine refuses to say how he will handle his enemy, and Shakespeare's Salisbury asks, "How wert thou handled being prisoner?"
- 3The part of an object made to be held in the hand when it is used or moved.
The hammer's wooden handle had cracked after years of use.
He pulled the door open by its cold brass handle.
UsageYou hold or pull something by its handle: a door handle, the handle of a knife.
Note
It names the hilt of a hunting knife or the grip of a bellows or a stopper. In Frank Zappa's "Billy the Mountain" (1972), a stop in Las Vegas means a chance to play a few slot machines, whose levers are the handles in question.
- 4To put up with something difficult and keep going.
I'm not sure the old engine can handle another long trip.
She handles criticism without losing her confidence.
UsageMost often with can or can't: I can't handle this heat; she can handle pressure.
Similarwithstand, take, bear, endure, stand
Note
The subject may be a person, a machine or a program. Software is said to handle the case where a file is not found, meaning it responds sensibly instead of crashing.
- 5To use, work, or move something with the hands, especially with skill.
The potter handles the wet clay with practiced fingers.
Soldiers learn to handle their weapons safely.
UsageOften with a comparison or a manner word: handle a rifle like a pistol, handle the glass carefully.
Note
Skill is the point here, and comparison is its favorite frame. Shakespeare's Lear mocks a man who "handles his bow like a crowkeeper." Mel Hallin Bolster's Crazy Snake and the Smoked Meat Rebellion (1976) has a big man who handled a rifle like a pistol.
- 6To respond in a particular way when being driven, steered, or controlled.
Lightweight bikes handle nimbly through city traffic.
The yacht handles smoothly even in rough seas.
UsageThe vehicle is the subject, usually followed by a word for how: the car handles well, the truck handles awkwardly.
Note
It mirrors managing or directing: drivers handle the car, and the car handles in return. Car reviewers pair it with ride, which describes comfort rather than control.
- 7To touch, feel, or hold something with the hands.
Visitors are asked not to handle the museum artifacts.
He handled each coin carefully before placing it in the case.
UsageCommon on labels and signs: handle with care, do not handle.
Similartouch, feel, finger, hold
Note
The bodily meaning keeps its first force in the King James Bible of 1611: "Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones."
- 8A grasp of something, or a means of getting it under control or coping with it; followed by "on".
Economists still don't have a good handle on how the new tariffs will affect prices.
The city is struggling to get a handle on its rising number of car thefts.
UsageUsually get a handle on or have a handle on something, often with good, better or no in between.
Similargrasp, grip, understanding
Note
A figurative grip, built on the part you hold: to get a handle on a problem is to find somewhere to take hold of it. The verb handle makes the same move from holding to coping.
- 9A name or nickname used to identify someone, especially over the radio or on the internet.
Truckers still use colorful handles on the CB radio.
She posted the warning from a handle nobody recognized.
UsageYour handle on a site or app; on many social media platforms it is written after @.
- 10
- 11
Less common meanings
- 12A means of achieving a purpose; a tool, an opportunity, or a pretext.
Opponents seized on the leaked memo as a handle against the chairman.
The minister's offhand remark about the poor gave his rivals exactly the handle they had been waiting for.
UsageOften a handle for something or against someone; to give someone a handle is to hand them a hold over you.
Similarpretext, lever, excuse, opening
Note
The figurative grip: whatever lets someone take hold of a situation. Robert South uses it for a weakness that gives an enemy a hold, and later polemicists for a pretext, often with a note of reproach. Scientists use it neutrally for a promising line of attack.
- 13A 1.75-liter bottle of liquor, sometimes loosely called a half-gallon.
He picked up a handle of whiskey on the way home.
Two handles of rum disappeared before midnight.
UsageUsually a handle of whiskey, rum or vodka.
Note
An American liquor-store word, named for the carrying grip molded into bottles of this size. In Stoeser and Cuffe's Bury My Body Down By the Highway Side (2014), one friend buys a fifth of Evan Williams. The other, short of money, buys the cheapest handle he can find.
- 14In soccer, to touch the ball illegally with the hand or arm.
The referee ruled that the striker had handled just before scoring.
Players who handle deliberately are usually booked.
UsageUsed without an object: the defender handled in the box, and the ball is understood.
Note
The offense itself is called handball. It is punished by a free kick or, when an outfield player does it inside their own penalty area, by a penalty kick.
- 15To get an animal used to being touched or held, and to care for it by hand.
Like a farmer gentling a young foal by touch until it no longer shies away.
Falconers handle their birds constantly to keep them tame.
The hardness of the winters forces the breeders to house and handle their colts for at least six months every year.
1679, William Temple, An essay upon the advancement of trade in Ireland.Note
Livestock breeders use it of young animals, getting them used to people through steady touch. William Temple writes in 1673 of breeders forced by hard winters to "house and handle their colts."
- 16Slang for a title attached to a person's name, such as Doctor or Colonel.
Like the 'Sir' or 'Madam' added before a name to mark someone's rank.
Though he had left the army decades earlier, he still liked a handle to his name and signed every letter 'Captain Reed.'
The new members were amused by how much the old doctor valued the handle in front of his name.
UsageUsually in the phrase a handle to someone's name: proud of the handle to his name.
Note
Unlike the online nickname, which replaces a name, this handle is fastened to one. A knighthood or a rank gives someone a handle to their name, and that fixed phrase is its usual setting.
- 17
- 18A reference to an object or data structure that a program can store in a variable.
Like a claim check at a coat room: a small token that stands in for the item and lets you fetch it on demand.
The function returns a handle that the rest of the code uses to access the resource.
When the window closes, the system releases the handle it assigned.
Similarreference
Note
Programmers use handle for an indirect reference. The code holds the handle, never the resource itself, and the handle is often just an opaque integer or pointer. It works much like an open file descriptor. Common compounds are window handle and function handle. In MATLAB, a nested function's handle keeps the parent-workspace variables it references in existence.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- A handle provides indirect access to a resource rather than containing the resource itself. learn.microsoft.com
- Handles can be opaque integers or pointers, and file descriptors are examples. en.wikipedia.org
- This is not true of function handles generally. Handles to nested functions retain the parent-workspace variables those nested functions reference. mathworks.com
- 19The total amount of money bet on an event or over a period, across one or more betting places or pools.
Like a store's total sales rung up at the register, before subtracting what it pays back out.
Super Bowl Sunday produces the largest single-day handle of the year for most sportsbooks.
Regulators track the monthly handle to estimate tax revenue.
Note
Casino jargon for betting volume, not winnings. Every wager counts, whatever it later pays back. At a table game it is hard to measure, because it includes every bet made in chips or in cash. Keep it apart from the drop: a casino's edge on table games is expressed as a percentage of the handle, not of the drop.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Handle measures total wagering, regardless of subsequent winnings or payouts. dth.nt.gov.au
- Measuring handle at table games is difficult because every wager must be counted. massgaming.com
- Table-game house advantage is expressed relative to handle rather than drop. nj.gov
- 20To be concerned with a subject or to be an expert in it.
They that handle the law knew me not
1611, The Holy Bible, King James VersionNote
A biblical usage that is easily misread today. The King James Bible of 1611 speaks of "they that handle the law," meaning those occupied with the law and versed in it.
- 21The character of a fabric as perceived by touch, judged by qualities such as softness, firmness, elasticity, fineness, and resilience.
Like the difference your fingers notice between smooth silk and rough burlap.
The finishing process gives the cotton a smoother handle.
Silk is prized for its cool, fluid handle against the skin.
Note
A trade word from textile finishing and quality grading for how a cloth answers the fingers when it is rubbed, squeezed or draped. It takes evaluative adjectives freely, as in a soft handle, a firm handle or a smoother handle. Finishing processes are judged partly by how they change it.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Handle is a technical term used in textile quality assessment. jtatm.textiles.ncsu.edu
- Fabric handle is assessed through tactile manipulation, including rubbing and squeezing. textiles.ncsu.edu
- Drape contributes to fabric handle assessment. textiles.ncsu.edu
- Finishing treatments are assessed partly for their effects on handle. doi.org
- 22A pint-sized glass beer mug with a handle on its side, traditionally made of dimpled glass.
Like the chunky, dimpled beer mug you picture in an old pub.
The old pub still serves its ale in a dimpled handle.
He lifted the heavy handle of bitter and drank deeply.
Note
A British pub word that names the glass by its most obvious feature, the grip on its side. The heavy dimpled pint glass also goes by jug. In Australia's Northern Territory the word measures beer instead, naming a ten-ounce glass. A request for a handle therefore means different things on opposite sides of the world.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The British glass is named for its handle and is also called a jug. en.wikipedia.org
- In Australia, handle can denote a ten-ounce beer glass. en.wikipedia.org
- The ten-ounce measure applies to Australia's Northern Territory. New Zealand handles are not fixed at that size; official survey material gives a 600 ml handle. health.govt.nz
- 23A glass of beer: in Australia's Northern Territory a 10-fluid-ounce (285-milliliter) glass, in New Zealand a larger glass with a handle.
Like the way a 'small,' 'medium,' or 'large' names a fixed amount: here a regional name for one beer size.
The barman slid a frothy handle across the counter.
They each downed a handle while waiting for the footy to start.
Note
Bar talk in Australia, especially the Northern Territory, and in New Zealand. In the Northern Territory the word fixes a size of serving and is ordered as a handle of beer. Fodor's 2009 New Zealand glosses it as a mug and sets it beside a one-liter jug, meaning a pitcher. Jug, the British name for the dimpled pint glass, here names something larger and shared.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- The Northern Territory serving called a handle is ten imperial fluid ounces, conventionally 285 ml. en.wiktionary.org
- New Zealand handles vary in size; they are not necessarily ten ounces or 285 ml. The Cook in Hamilton serves 500 ml handles. thecook.co.nz
- The expression handle of beer is attested. en.wiktionary.org
- Fodor's 2009 New Zealand glosses handle as mug and describes a one-liter jug as a pitcher. en.wiktionary.org
- Jug is a British name for the dimpled pint glass. en.wikipedia.org
- New Zealand beer jugs are larger vessels used for sharing. teara.govt.nz
- 24A point of land, or a narrow projecting tip reaching out into the water.
Similarpoint, headland, promontory, spit
Note
A rare local term from Newfoundland and Labrador, found in place names such as the Handle of the Sug. It pictures a narrow tongue of land as the grip of a tool.
- 25A space topologically equivalent to a closed ball, viewed as a product of two closed balls, either of which may be a point.
- 26In a comb, the one smooth and irreducible subcurve that every other component meets at precisely one point.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
From Middle English handel, from Old English handle ("a handle"), related to the verb and to hand.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The noun descends from Middle English handel and Old English handle, meaning a handle. en.wiktionary.org
- The noun is etymologically related to the verb handle. en.wiktionary.org
It goes back to Proto-Germanic *handulōną ("to take, grip, feel"), in effect hand plus the suffix -le, which became Old English handlian ("to handle, feel, deal with, discuss") and then Middle English handlen. Related words include Dutch handelen, German handeln ("to act, trade, negotiate"), and Swedish handla ("to buy, trade").