hands-on

[handz-on, -awn]

adjective

1. characterized by or involved in active personal participation in an activity; individual and direct.

   a workshop to give children hands-on experience with computers.

2. requiring manual operation, control, adjustment, or the like; not automatic or computerized.

   the old hands-on telephone switchboards.

hands-on

adjective

1. involving practical experience of equipment, etc

   hands-on training in the use of computers

Word History and Origins

Origin of hands-on¹

First recorded in 1905–10; by analogy with hands-off

Example Sentences

Taiwan's assistance to it has been hands-on: agricultural experts working side by side with locals, medical teams in small clinics, funding for local entrepreneurs, and inviting students to Taiwan on scholarships.

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They are bundles of judgment, coordination and hands-on work.

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She went to Texas A&M to study engineering, but when her hands-on lab classes stopped because of Covid, college became less enjoyable.

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The company has emphasized cost efficiencies, sought to improve product development through artificial intelligence and deployed co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey in a more hands-on role within the Square merchant business.

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While it’s good for you to know all this information, I hope that your hands-on parenting approach isn’t discouraging your daughter from being independent.

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Related Words

• firsthand