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Idioms and expressions make language more interesting and vibrant. They are a very important part of speech and native speakers use them frequently. So in order to improve your English and have fluent conversations, it’s essencial to continue studying vocabulary and expressions.
Today we will look at common expressions using the word “hand”. They are used a lot in the English language, it will help you converse and understand native English dialogue.
Read the definitions of the expressions and then do the exercises at the end to put these expressions into practice.
– On hand – available for use.
Example: “My mum always has lots of food on hand”
– In hand – in your possession or control.
Example: “He has the situation well in hand”
– Out of hand – very quickly without serious thought.
Example: “He decided to go to Italy out of hand”
– Out of hand (2) – not controlled.
Example: “Her children were tired and quickly got out of hand, running everywhere”
– At hand – close in distance or time.
Example: “She always keeps her phone close at hand”
– At first hand – in a direct way
Example: “I was able to verify his statement at first hand”
– Eat out of someone’s hand – to be completely controlled by someone.
Example: “Her boyfriend has her eating out of his hand”
– Offhand – without premeditation or preparation.
Example: “I can’t give you my telephone number offhand, I’ve forgotten it”
– By hand – with the hands.
Example: “Jane makes earrings by hand”
– Second hand – having had a previous owner.
Example: “I love my handbag, even though it’s second hand”
– Get/Lay your hands on – to find, get, or control (someone or something).
Example: “I finally managed to lay my hands on some of that chocolate cake”
– Hand in glove – very closely.
Example: “James and Sue are working hand in glove to make the project work”
– On the one hand, on the other hand – used to introduce statements that describe two different or opposite ideas, people, etc.
Example: “On the one hand, it’s really cheap, but on the other I can’t afford it”
Exercises
2. She couldn’t wait to __________ the money.
a. at first hand
b. offhand
c. get her hands on
3. All my friends were _______ to help me.
a. by hand
b. on hand
c. in hand
4. The kids got quite ________ during their trip to the museum.
a. out of hand
b. on hand
d. offhand
5. “Is that jumper new?” “No, it’s _________.”
a. first hand
b. second hand
c. by hand
[hænd in] сдать, передать что-то ответственному лицу
Когда человек Hand something In, то он передает что-то ответственному лицу. Это может быть домашняя работа (учителю), найденный паспорт (полиции), заявление (работодателю).
Если вы возвращаете вещь или что-то другое обратно ее хозяину, то американцы используют синоним Turn In.
Экзаменатор раздала таблицы и через полчаса студенты сдали их обратно заполненными.
I handed the watch in to the police.
Я передал часы в полицию.
All essays must be handed in by Tuesday.
Все сочинения должны быть сданы до вторника.
Я думаю, что действительно разозлила своего учителя, когда вовремя не сдала домашнюю работу.
And you said to yourself, “I’m going to work so hard I’m going to get an A in that course.” And then you handed in that next paper, and you got that B+ again.
И вы сказали себе: “Я буду так усердно работать, что получу пятерку по этому курсу”. А потом вы сдали следующую работу – и снова получили двойку с плюсом.
- Глагол To Get и его значения
In June 2018, a hedgehog, which is currently considered the world’s fattest, was handed in to a rescue centre in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Weighing in at a whopping 2,3 кг he was about four times the size of the average hedgehog.
В июне 2018 ежа, который по настоящее время считается самым толстым в мире, передали в спасательный центр в Абердиншире, Шотландия. При весе в целых 2,3 кг он был примерно в четыре раза больше среднего ежа.
Also note that the student handed in work late.
Также обратите внимание, что студент сдал работу с опозданием.
I’ve handed in my second draught of my book. I did it, are you proud of me Erin?
Я сдала второй черновой вариант книги. Я сделала это, ты гордишься мной, Эрин?
- ★ Фразовые глаголы с Hand
- ★ Фразовые глаголы с предлогом IN
Idioms and expressions with hand are often used to describe actions, behaviors, or emotions. Some examples of idioms and expressions with hand include “have a hand in,” “at hand,” “lend a hand,” “in good hands,” and “by the hand.”
The following lesson introduces more than 25 popular idioms and phrases with “hand” with useful example sentences and ESL image.
Here is the list of idioms and expressions with Hand in English:
1. By hand – made by a person and not a machine
E.g. The fabric was painted by hand.
2. At hand/handy – nearby
E.g. I like to keep my vocabulary at hand.
3. On hand – present, available.
E.g. Are there enough people on hand to hold a meeting?
We have lots of people on hand to help you with this project.
4. Out of hand – out of control.
E.g. Employee absenteeism has gotten out of hand.
5. First hand – to experience something yourself.
E.g. I never knew how hard it was to play the guitar until I tried it first-hand.
6. Second hand – not from the original source/ used object.
E.g. Tom advised him not to buy the second-hand car
7. On the one hand…On the other hand – Compare two aspects of a situation.
E.g. On the one hand she is beautiful, from another hand she talks too much.
8. Know like the back of your hand – very well.
E.g. She’ll give you the name of a place to stay – she knows the area like the back of her hand.
9. Give a hand/ lend a hand – to help somebody physically.
E.g. Could you lend me a hand with this piano?
10. Hands down – obviously, without a doubt/easily, decisively.
E.g. Tom was hands-down the best student at the university.
11. Force someone’s hand – compel them to act prematurely or involuntarily.
E.g. They decided to strike to force the management’s hand.
12. Get your hands dirty – to engage in an important activity that may not be pleasant.
E.g. He’s not frightened of getting his hands dirty.
13. Hand something up – to present it to a higher authority, such as grand jury to a judge.
E.g. Please hand up this coffee to Carl.
14. Have (someone’s) blood on (one’s) hands –To be the cause of (someone’s) death; to bear the guilt or responsibility of (someone’s) death or injury.
E.g. The police now have blood on their hands after their crackdown on protesters turned violent.
15. Heavy-handed – using too much of something in a way that can cause damage
E.g. Don’t be too heavy-handed with the salt.
16. To be underhanded is to be deceitful.
E.g. I promise you there’s nothing underhand about this agreement.
17. Hold/put your hands up – to admit that you have made a mistake or are responsible for something bad
E.g. I have to hold my hands up and admit that some of the problems have been all my own fault.
18. In somebody’s capable, safe, etc. hands – being taken care of or dealt with by somebody that you think you can rely on
E.g. Can I leave these queries in your capable hands?
19. In the hands of somebody, in somebody’s hands – being taken care of or controlled by somebody
E.g. The matter is now in the hands of my lawyer.
20. In safe hands, in the safe hands of somebody – being taken care of well by somebody
E.g. Their problem was in the safe hands of the experts.
21. Keep your hand in – to occasionally do something that you used to do a lot so that you do not lose your skill at it
E.g. She retired last year but still teaches the odd class to keep her hand in.
22. Take your courage in both hands – to make yourself do something that you are afraid of
E.g. Taking her courage in both hands, she opened the door and walked in.
23. Take the law into your own hands – to do something illegal in order to punish somebody for doing something wrong, instead of letting the police deal with them
E.g. After a series of burglaries in the area, the police are worried that residents might take the law into their own hands.
24. Take your life in your hands – to risk being killed
E.g. You take your life in your hands just crossing the road here.
25. Turn your hand to something – to start doing something or be able to do something, especially when you do it well
E.g. Jim can turn his hand to most jobs around the house.
26. Wait on somebody hand and foot – to take care of somebody’s needs so well that they do not have to do anything for themselves
E.g. He seems to expect me to wait on him hand and foot.
27. Wash your hands of somebody/something – to refuse to be responsible for or involved with somebody/something
E.g. I’ve washed my hands of the whole sordid business.
28. Put your hand in your pocket – (British English) to spend money or give it to somebody
E.g. I’ve heard he doesn’t like putting his hand in his pocket.
Idioms and Expressions with HAND | Image
Idioms and Expressions with Hand – Infographic
So what is it that you can do with your hands? I can obviously write with my hands, I can wash things with my hands. Sometimes we can also love others with our hands and if you are too angry, you might even give a tight slap to someone with your hands but in this Spoken English lesson, we are leaning some interesting English expressions that we can use in our daily English conversation which has the word hand in them. These are idiomatic expressions and don’t have literally the same meaning as you read them. Stay tuned in this English Practice lesson to learn more about your English Course Teacher – Michelle. Learning English online with Let’s Talk Free English speaking Lesson is easy and fun.
Complete Lesson Transcript
So what is it that you can do with your hands? I can obviously write with my hands, I can wash with my hands. Sometimes we can also love others with our hands and if you are too angry, you might even slap someone with your hands but in this lesson, we are leaning some other expressions that we can do with our hands. Not literally but idiomatically. Stay tuned to learn more with me, Michelle, you’re tutor.
So let’s have a look at the first expression that we have on the board and that is, be hand in glove with someone. So what is a glove? A glove is a covering that you wear over your hand. may be to protect your hand in winters from the cold, from the bitter cold, at other times to protect your hand from the heat when you are cooking but how can you be hand in glove with someone? So if we think the glove and the hand are really close, they are touching each other and they are very, very close. So in your life, you’re close to someone if you’re very close to someone, you’re hand in glove with someone. So you could say, John and Sally are hand in glove with each other. So they are close to each other. That’s not all, you can use this expression at your workplace also, so you can use this expression with the word, work. You could say that the teacher and the principal and the teachers work hand in glove with each other. So you can use the word work before the expression at a professional place to show a professional relationship and you can also use this expression to talk about a suspicious situation where you’re doubting someone. So you could say, let’s take a crime situation. So you may say that the gangs are working hand in glove with the police. So you can’t even trust the police now. So these are three ways to use this first expression. Now let’s look at the second expression, can’t lay hands on someone. Lay means to put your hand upon someone. So if you can’t put your hand on someone, what does it mean? Maybe that you can’t find them or you can’t find something. If you’ve borrowed your books from your friend and your friend wants them back but you just can’t find the book, you don’t know where did you keep them. Your friend calls up, tring, tring, hi where are my books? Can I please get them? And you’d be like, I can’t lay my hands on the books, please wait I’ll respond to you soon. I’ll get back to you soon when i lay my hands on the book, which means when I can find them, to find something. If you say, can’t lay your hands means to not find something.
There’s a similar meaning to this phrase which is, that you’re waiting to grab someone or grasp someone to do some harm to them. Has it ever happened to you? It’s happened with me, it’s my experience that once my roommate, she left the home, sorry she left the house and she took the keys with her and sadly I had recently lost a pair of keys. So I had none and she didn’t turn up for hours. I was trying to ring her but she just didn’t pick up and I called another of my friends and he was like, what’s wrong? And I told him, I’m just out of the house. He said, why? What happened? I said, Tommy has gone again with the keys and I’m waiting to lay hands on her which means that once she’s back, I’m waiting to hit her or I’m waiting to fight with her in a way. Obviously, I won’t do that, it’s just figurative.
Okay, let’s look at the third phrase, to change hands which means to go from one hand to another hand. In other words, to change owners, to change owners. You can surely expect this phrase from your grandpa, he m9ght just say that we built our house in 1970 and since then no one has changed hands. This means that no one has ever laid hands on the house or the owner of the house has never changed.
Let’s look at the next phrase that we have, to eat out of someone’s hands. So whose hands do you think you can eat out of? Like practically, you know you can’t eat out of a stranger’s hands. Most probably your mother’s hands, why? Because she is in absolute control of you. The same way, when you are in absolute control of a situation, then you’re eating out of someone’s hands. So it was in a concert, when I went to a concert I saw this band performing and they were just go good. The moment they were on stage, everyone was listening to them and they were wrapped in the music. So the guys were eating, sorry the crowd was eating out of the guys’ hands just with some opening numbers. So this means to be in absolute control.
Now let’s look at the next phrase, first hand, second hand, third hand, fourth hand. Of course, you’ve heard the term second hand which means that you use an already used thing. So that means you reuse an already used thing but first hand. Are we talking about usage here? Not really, we’re talking about experience. Have you ever had a firsthand experience of something? Have you ever seen an accident with your own two eyes? If you have, then you had a firsthand experience. If you’re listening from someone else about their experience, then that’s not a firsthand experience but when you’re watching it with your own eyes, that’s a personal contact or a direct view. So you use a first hand for a direct experience.
The next phrase that we have is, have a free hand with something. So having a free hand, what can you do with a free hand? You can possibly do everything with a free hand and that’s exactly what this phrase means. That when you have the freedom to do whatever you want. So if you’re working on a project, how do you like it? Do you like to be guided by someone? Or do you like to work freehand? Which means work the way you want. If you want to use this phrase in a sentence, you could say, I could have performed much better, had I got a freehand with the last project. So this is the way, you can use it.
The next phrase we have is, off hand. Well the word, off, we can guess from it. The word says that something that is not available. Something that you do not have. This is the meaning of this word, it usually means something that is not there. So what is that we don’t have with this expression. If I ask you, what is the capital of Tanzania? Do you have an answer right now? Maybe some of you have but those of you don’t have, you don’t have the answer off hand. Maybe you can get me the answer later but if you cannot get me the answer at the spur of the moment that is right now then you don’t have the answer off hand which means at the moment or at the spur of the moment.
Let’s move on to the next phrase coz it’s getting only more interesting. In hand, something that is in hand or something that is at hand. I’m sorry, at hand. What we do we mean by something that is at hand. so, if something is at hand’s distance, it is very near physically but if you’re not talking about something physically and we’re talking about some idea in our head, then that means that something is very near. What happens when the holiday season is at hand? Everyone is very excited. This means when the holiday season is very near or when the holiday season is at hand, everyone is very excited
To wash one’s hands off, what does that mean? You must have guessed. You’re getting rid of something. To wash one’s hand of means to get rid of something. So when you’re really done with something and you don’t want to take any more responsibility for it, you could say, I’m done with him, it’s time I wash my hands off. This means it’s time I get rid of my responsibility for that particular person or maybe for a particular project.
Here we have the last phrase, to be in someone’s hands. This means you’re safe in someone’s hands. To be in someone’s hands means more like someone is responsible for you. To be someone’s responsibility. If you’re taking your girl out at the night, then she is in your hands. This means that you are responsible for her safety.
Thank you so much for this amazing lesson about hands and surely I’m sure now you know that there are many more things that you can do with your hands and not just washing, sapping or loving. Come back for more lesson with me, this is Michelle, signing off.
Posted on September 24, 2013ininIdiom Of The Day
Here is another fabulous idiom of the day from Richard Ford.
There are numerous English idioms that contain the word ‘hand’ but in this video, Richard explains the meaning and usage of the common English expression, to know something like the back of your hand
Know something like the back of your hand – Video
View this video on You Tube
Video Transcript
Hello. To know something like the back of your hand means that you know that person or that thing very, very well. For example, you could say, “I know Hong Kong like the back of my hand.” That would mean, I know Hong Kong very, very well and I won’t get lost. You can use it for people, too. “I know you like the back of my hand”. For example, if your friend is looking unhappy and he says he isn’t, you can say, “Yes you are, I know you like the back of my hand!” So, do you know anyone like the back of your hand? Please leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you.
10 More Idioms With The Word ‘Hand’
There are many English expressions with the word ‘hand’ in them. Here are just 10 more examples. For a more comprehensive list, checks the links below.
1. Bite the hand that feeds you
– to harm someone who is good to you or does things to help you
Example:
Seeing as they are paying for you to go to university, Susan, I think you should think again about not inviting them to your wedding. I know you can’t stand your father or his new wife but why bite the hands that feeds you?
2. Change hands
– to be sold, taken over or given by someone else
Example:
We go to a different pub ever since the Globe changed hands.
3. Caught with one’s hand in the till/cookie jar
– to be caught doing something wrong or illegal or to be caught stealing something (often money)
Example:
No, she hasn’t worked here since she was caught with her hands in the cookie jar. Apparently, she was taking home at least 15 kilos of meat each week.
4. Take a firm hand with someone/something
– to be strict or take strict control of someone or something
Example:
If you don’t take a firm hand with her now, she will lose all sense of discipline and run riot later in life.
5. Live from hand to mouth
– to live on very little money
Example:
My parents never enjoyed the privileged life we all take for granted. They grew up living hand to mouth.
6. Give/lend someone a hand
– to help someone with something
Example:
Today’s mandarin lesson was really difficult. Do you think you could give me a hand with my homework?
7. Get out of hand
– to become difficult or impossible to control
Example:
I think we will have to get rid of that new English teacher; she just can’t control the kids. Today was the third day in a row I noticed things getting out of hand in her English class.
8. Pay (someone) a back-handed compliment
– to insult someone by offering – what appears on the surface to be – a compliment
Example:
Sally: Oh, Rita, you’re so lucky you don’t have to worry about men only liking you for your looks.
Rita: Thanks a lot, Sally, you’ve always been great at back handed compliments, haven’t you?
9. An old hand at (doing something)
– someone who is experienced and very good at doing something
Example:
You should call Dan to fix those lights in the bedroom, he’s an old hand at anything to do with electrics.
10. Hand it to someone
– to admit, perhaps reluctantly, that someone deserves credit or praise for doing something well.
Example:
You’ve got to hand it to Jason, he might be the most annoying man in the office but the business he brings in keeps most of us in work.
Useful Links
http://www.learn-english-today.com/idioms/idiom-categories/body/hands1.html
http://www.idiomconnection.com/armhand.html#A5
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