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• hands-off
  hands-off

  adjective

  characterized by nonintervention or noninterference.
• hands off
  hands off

  An order to stop touching or interfering with something, as in Hands off the cake, children! This idiom is also put as keep one's hands off, as in She knew she had to keep her hands off so he could learn to tie his shoes by himself. [Mid-1500s]

hands-off

American  

[handz-awf, -of] / ˈhændzˈɔf, -ˈɒf /

adjective

1. characterized by nonintervention or noninterference.

   the new hands-off foreign policy.

2. remote or unfriendly; estranging.

   a truculent, hands-off manner toward strangers.

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hands-off British  

adjective

1. (of a machine, device, etc) without need of manual operation

2. denoting a policy, etc, of deliberate noninvolvement

   a hands-off strategy towards industry

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hands off Idioms  

1. An order to stop touching or interfering with something, as in Hands off the cake, children! This idiom is also put as keep one's hands off, as in She knew she had to keep her hands off so he could learn to tie his shoes by himself. [Mid-1500s]

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Etymology

Origin of hands-off

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

Barr has pushed for tighter supervision while Bowman, a former community banker and state bank commissioner, has advocated for a more hands-off approach.

From Barron's • Jun. 24, 2026

Yet, Anthropic this week welcomed an executive order on AI from US President Donald Trump that was relatively hands-off in its directives toward the companies.

From BBC • Jun. 4, 2026

There’s a paradox to being first lady, as Jill notes throughout the book—the risk of being seen as too involved in her husband’s presidency, or too hands-off.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 2, 2026

Newhouse’s philosophy of spending money to produce quality coverage and a hands-off approach toward his editors led to many successes, including multiple Pulitzers.

From Los Angeles Times • May 27, 2026

By the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, landlords in central and Southern China had an almost completely hands-off relationship with their tenants: they would collect a fixed rent and let farmers go about their business.

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell