hand tool
noun
any tool or implement designed for manual operation.
hand tool
1 Americannoun
hand-tool
2
American
[hand-tool]
/ ˈhændˌtul /
verb (used with object)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
On May 9, 1933, Thompson received the patent for the cross-shaped screw head and the hand tool used to drive it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 12, 2026
He retrieved a backpack with water from his engine, sprayed into the ground with a couple gallons of water and dug up the dirt with his hand tool until he was satisfied it was cool.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2026
Another 2,700 people sought medical attention after an accident with a non-powered hand tool, such as a hammer or a saw, and 349 were admitted to hospital after tussles with a lawnmower.
From BBC ● Jan. 2, 2022
There is nothing more “human” than combining hand, tool and mind.
From New York Times ● Aug. 21, 2021
The source of such information derived from the hand tool is generally visual, recorded in the tool itself or in pictures of it and supported by manuscript and printed material.
From Woodworking Tools 1600-1900 by Peter C. Welsh
The proposal to revert to the older competitive plan is reminiscent of the outcry against machine production a century earlier, and the earnest pleas then made to return to the hand-tool method.
From Problems of Conduct by Durant Drake
This quest motivated three centuries of toolmakers and brought vitality to hand-tool design.
From Woodworking Tools 1600-1900 by Peter C. Welsh
The tools they use are very primitive; the hoe being the principal hand-tool, and the plough of ancient use for animal power.
From Four Young Explorers or, Sight-Seeing in the Tropics by A. B. Shute
The divergence from European to an Anglo-American hand-tool design and the approximate date that it occurred can be suggested by a comparison of contemporary illustrations.
From Woodworking Tools 1600-1900 by Peter C. Welsh
The simplest application of a principle of mechanics to an every-day hand-tool may convert it into what is called a machine.
From Knowledge is Power: A View of the Productive Forces of Modern Society and the Results of Labor, Capital and Skill. by Charles Knight
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.
