hand over hand
IdiomsExample Sentences
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With the aid of an "elbow" joint, it will shift position by moving hand over hand.
From BBC • Jul. 21, 2021
It was caught and secured to the Arizona, and Stratton and Bruner began scooting along it, hand over hand, for 75 feet.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 6, 2017
He grabs a cord leading out of the tube and reels it up, hand over hand, until a cigar-shaped capsule emerges—a packet of neutron-absorbing cadmium.
From Science Magazine • Aug. 31, 2017
The fireball caused burns over more than 70 percent of Bruner’s body, but he found the strength to climb a rope 100 feet hand over hand to the repair ship Vestal.
From Washington Times • Dec. 20, 2015
You push along a flat-bottomed boat with a long pole, hoisting it, hand over hand, out of the water, then pushing it down hard and driving the boat forward.
From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.