hands
1 Britishplural noun
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power or keeping
your welfare is in his hands
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Also called: handling. soccer the infringement of touching the ball with any part of the hand or arm
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to pass from the possession of one person or group to another
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freedom from guilt
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without effort; easily
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do not touch or interfere
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raise the hands above the level of the shoulders, an order usually given by an armed robber to a victim, etc
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to be completely occupied
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to be beset with problems
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to be wholly unable to act
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in protective care
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See join
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to seize or get possession of
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to beat up; assault
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to find
I just can't lay my hands on it anywhere
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Christianity to confirm or ordain by the imposition of hands
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for which one is no longer responsible
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for which one is responsible
I've got too much on my hands to help
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to spare
time on my hands
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no longer one's responsibility
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to give up in despair
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to have nothing more to do with
noun
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.
His group fears the Ellisons would “do worse if they get their hands on Warner Bros., HBO, CNN and all the rest.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 12, 2026
The divers floated to them, their gloved hands touching the surface, searching for seams where the pipelines were at their weakest.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 12, 2026
From the scaffolding, restorers have been meticulously filling in damaged portions of the frescoes and conservatively layering paint over bare sections with delicate brushes, their hands protected by gloves.
From Barron's • Jun. 12, 2026
"So, if the HAQERs are like volume knobs that can be turned, FOXP2 is one of the hands that is turning these volume knobs."
From Science Daily • Jun. 12, 2026
I turned the oval over in my hands, looking at the work she’d already done, each stitch tiny and regular on the back, but the colors on the front were wild and fluid.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
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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.