handwriting
[hand-rahy-ting]
- writing done with a pen or pencil in the hand; script.
- a style or manner of writing by hand, especially that which characterizes a particular person; penmanship: an eccentric handwriting.
- a handwritten document; manuscript.
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- handwriting on the wall, a premonition, portent, or clear indication, especially of failure or disaster: The company had ignored the handwriting on the wall and was plunged into bankruptcy.Also writing on the wall.
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Origin of handwriting
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
handwriting
- writing by hand rather than by typing or printing
- a person's characteristic writing stylethat signature is in my handwriting
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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 writing on the wall
handwriting
c.1500, from hand (n.) + writing, translating Latin manuscriptum. Hand in the sense of "handwriting, style of writing" is from late 14c.
An ordinary note in his [Horace Greeley's] handwriting is said to have been used for a long time as a railroad pass, then as a servant's recommendation, and finally taken to a drug-store as a doctor's prescription. ["Frank Leslie's Magazine," August 1884]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with writing on the wall
writing on the wall
see handwriting on the wall.
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.