Word.ws English Dictionary

gave with one hand and took away with the other

gave with one hand and took away with the other is the simple past of give with one hand and take away with the other.

Meaning of give with one hand and take away with the other

Verb

give with one hand and take away with the other (third-person singular simple present gives with one hand and takes away with the other, present participle giving with one hand and taking away with the other, simple past gave with one hand and took away with the other, past participle given with one hand and taken away with the other)

  1. To help in one way but proceed to harm in another.
    • Taking with one hand what it gave with the other, the Court curtails Ramoss effects by expunging Teagues provision for watershed rules.2021, Edwards v. Vannoy (U.S. Supreme Court No. 19–5807), Justice Kagan dissenting

Questions about gave with one hand and took away with the other

What is gave with one hand and took away with the other the simple past of?
Gave with one hand and took away with the other is the simple past of give with one hand and take away with the other.

Words near gave with one hand and took away with the other in the dictionary

  1. gave vent to
  2. gave voice
  3. gave way
  4. gave weight
  5. gave what for
  6. gave with one hand and took away with the other
  7. gave zero fucks
  8. gavel
  9. gavel out
  10. gavel to order
  11. gavel-to-gavel

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gave with one hand and took away with the other (page history and authors); give with one hand and take away with the other (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “gave with one hand and took away with the other.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gave_with_one_hand_and_took_away_with_the_other. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.