hands-off
[handz-awf, -of]
- characterized by nonintervention or noninterference: the new hands-off foreign policy.
- remote or unfriendly; estranging: a truculent, hands-off manner toward strangers.
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Origin of hands-off
First recorded in 1900–05
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for hands-off
Contemporary Examples
For years, President Obama took a hands-off approach to Iraqi politics.
For the most part, the colonels and generals were hands-off and allowed us to do the job we were trained to do.
Team Obama had better hope its hands-off strategy for saving the two-state solution works.
The better decision is incremental reforms at the state level and a hands-off approach from the feds.
Has the White House been too hands-off during debt talks in Congress?
Historical Examples
Secretary Johnson had obviously adopted a hands-off policy on integration.
Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965Morris J. MacGregor, Jr.
So far as foreign powers are concerned, we have laid down the principle of "Hands-off."
"Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our Forefathers"Charles Francis Adams
We interfered under a most questionable extension of the Monroe Doctrine, and asserted the principle of "Hands-off."
"Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our Forefathers"Charles Francis Adams
hands-off
- (of a machine, device, etc) without need of manual operation
- denoting a policy, etc, of deliberate noninvolvementa hands-off strategy towards industry
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for hands-off
also hands off, as an adjective, by 1895. As a command to desist, by 1810.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper