handwriting

[hand-rahy-ting]

See more synonyms for handwriting on Thesaurus.com

noun

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.

Idioms

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.

Origin of handwriting

1375–1425; late Middle English hand writyng; see hand + writing

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for writing on the wall

fate, hunch, omen, portent, foretaste

British Dictionary definitions for writing on the wall

handwriting

noun

writing by hand rather than by typing or printing
a person's characteristic writing stylethat signature is in my handwriting

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]

Idioms and Phrases with writing on the wall

writing on the wall

see handwriting on the wall.