See also: handout, Handout, and hand-out

English

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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hand out (third-person singular simple present hands out, present participle handing out, simple past and past participle handed out)

  1. (transitive) To distribute; to give out, either by hand or as if so (figuratively). [from 17th c.]
    Coordinate term: hand over
    Near-synonyms: give out, pass out, send out
    • 2012 June 3, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Mr. Plow” (season 4, episode 9; originally aired 11/19/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)[1]:
      Homer’s entrepreneurial spirit proves altogether overly infectious. Homer gives Barney a pep talk when he encounters him dressed up like a baby handing out fliers (Barney in humiliating costumes=always funny) and it isn’t long until Barney has purchased a truck of his own and set up shop as the Plow King.
  2. To help (someone) from a vehicle.
    • 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book I, ch. 10:
      ‘Lydgate has a lot of ideas [] ,’ resumed Mr Brooke, after he had handed out Lady Chettam, and had returned to be civil to a group of Middlemarchers.
    • 2008, Deborah Weisgall, The World Before Her, page 107:
      He jumped onto the deck and handed her out of the gondola.
  3. (slang) To try to impress (someone) with deceptions.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Phrase

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hand out

  1. (baseball, slang, 1800s) a player is out