What does hand mean?

What does hand mean?. The world's largest and most trusted free online dictionary: definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more.

What does hand mean? - The Free Dictionary

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[n] the (prehensile) extremity of the superior limb(he had the hands of a surgeon he extended his mitt)[v] place into the hands or custody of(hand me the spoon, please Turn the files over to me, please He turned over the prisoner to his lawyers)[n] a hired laborer on a farm or ranch(the hi

hand

hand - The Free Dictionary

[n] the (prehensile) extremity of the superior limb
(he had the hands of a surgeon he extended his mitt)

[v] place into the hands or custody of
(hand me the spoon, please Turn the files over to me, please He turned over the prisoner to his lawyers)

[n] a hired laborer on a farm or ranch
(the hired hand fixed the railing a ranch hand)

[v] guide or conduct or usher somewhere
(hand the elderly lady into the taxi)

[n] something written by hand
(she recognized his handwriting his hand was illegible)

[n] ability
(he wanted to try his hand at singing)

[n] a position given by its location to the side of an object
(objections were voiced on every hand)

[n] the cards held in a card game by a given player at any given time
(I didn't hold a good hand all evening he kept trying to see my hand)

[n] one of two sides of an issue
(on the one hand..., but on the other hand...)

[n] a rotating pointer on the face of a timepiece
(the big hand counts the minutes)

[n] a unit of length equal to 4 inches; used in measuring horses
(the horse stood 20 hands)

[n] a member of the crew of a ship
(all hands on deck)

[n] a card player in a game of bridge
(we need a 4th hand for bridge)

[n] a round of applause to signify approval
(give the little lady a great big hand)

[n] terminal part of the forelimb in certain vertebrates (e.g. apes or kangaroos)
(the kangaroo's forearms seem undeveloped but the powerful five-fingered hands are skilled at feinting and clouting)

[n] physical assistance
(give me a hand with the chores)

Other vocabulary

'hood, human botfly, human chorionic gonadotrophin, human chorionic gonadotropin, human death, human dynamo, human ecology, human elbow, human face, human foot, human gamma globulin, human genome project, human growth hormone, human head, human immunodeficiency virus, human knee, human language technology, human nature, human palaeontology, human paleontology, human papilloma virus, human process, human race, human relationship, human remains pouch, human reproductive cloning, human right, human t-cell leukemia virus-1, human waste, human-centered, a, a battery, a bit, a capella singing, a cappella, a cappella singing, a couple of, a few, a fortiori, a good deal, a great deal, a horizon, a hundred times, a kempis, a la carte, a la mode, a level, a little, a lot, a million times, a posteriori, a priori, a trifle, a'man, a-bomb, a-horizon, a-line, a-list, a-ok, a-okay

Dictionary

A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.

A broad distinction is made between general and specialized dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include words in specialist fields, rather than a complete range of words in the language. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether lexicology and terminology are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed[citation needed] to be semasiological, mapping word to definition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be onomasiological, first identifying concepts and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types. There are other types of dictionaries that do not fit neatly into the above distinction, for instance bilingual (translation) dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms (thesauri), and rhyming dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a general purpose monolingual dictionary.

There is also a contrast between prescriptive or descriptive dictionaries; the former reflect what is seen as correct use of the language while the latter reflect recorded actual use. Stylistic indications (e.g. "informal" or "vulgar") in many modern dictionaries are also considered by some to be less than objectively descriptive.

The first recorded dictionaries date back to Sumerian times around 2300 BCE, in the form of bilingual dictionaries, and the oldest surviving monolingual dictionaries are Chinese dictionaries c. 3rd century BCE. The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written in 1604, and monolingual dictionaries in other languages also began appearing in Europe at around this time. The systematic study of dictionaries as objects of scientific interest arose as a 20th-century enterprise, called lexicography, and largely initiated by Ladislav Zgusta. The birth of the new discipline was not without controversy, with the practical dictionary-makers being sometimes accused by others of having an "astonishing" lack of method and critical-self reflection.