handkerchief
Americannoun
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handkerchiefs
plural
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a small piece of linen, silk, or other fabric, usually square, and used especially for wiping one's nose, eyes, face, etc., or for decorative purposes.
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a neckerchief or kerchief.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of handkerchief
Explanation
A handkerchief is a square of fabric that you can use to blow your nose. You can also tuck a handkerchief in the breast pocket of a suit, or wear it tied jauntily around your neck. You can call a handkerchief a "hanky," or just a kerchief, although this more often means "a square piece of cloth worn as a head covering." This last part of handkerchief comes from the Old French couvrechief, literally meaning "cover head," from couvrir, "cover," and chief, "head." So a handkerchief is a similar cloth held in the hand — to mop your brow or wipe your eyes.
Vocabulary lists containing handkerchief
Commonly Misspelled Words, List 4
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Shiloh
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"Growing Together" and "When I Grow Up"
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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:
His repeated attempts to flex expensive restaurant bills and hardman tough talk land like a waterlogged handkerchief after he’s spent song after song cataloging all the specific ways we’ve all hurt his feelings.
From Salon ● May 21, 2026
And when the stormy morning after arrives, each peal of thunder sends Julia into a paroxysm of nerves that flings her around like a handkerchief caught in a stiff breeze.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026
Afterwards Nawat appeared at a press conference wearing a tuxedo and openly weeping as he theatrically dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief, claiming he had been "betrayed".
From Barron's ● Nov. 6, 2025
At one point, while giving his evidence, he became emotional while looking at photos and wiped his eyes with a handkerchief.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2025
I pulled out a handkerchief to wipe my brow, and tried to slow my panting, savoring the cool that was blowing in with the rain.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
Decades ago, the air was so polluted that her children wore handkerchiefs over their mouths when they went to school.
From Salon ● May 10, 2026
Her history of Kleenex tissues is a tour de force: We learn that the Kimberly-Clark Corp., which owns Kleenex, played on the fear that reusable handkerchiefs were essentially wads of tuberculosis germs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
Others shake their heads, fold handkerchiefs to their faces and look away.
From BBC ● Jan. 27, 2025
Mirojnick dressed him in exactingly tailored suits made from ultra-fine woolens and put monograms on his shirts, handkerchiefs and even the labels inside his clothes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2024
Nearly all the girls carried and treasured her handkerchiefs.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
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.
