Word.ws English Dictionary

given with one hand and taken away with the other

given with one hand and taken away with the other is the past participle 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 given with one hand and taken away with the other

What is given with one hand and taken away with the other the past participle of?
Given with one hand and taken away with the other is the past participle of give with one hand and take away with the other.

Words near given with one hand and taken away with the other in the dictionary

  1. given vent to
  2. given voice
  3. given way
  4. given weight
  5. given what for
  6. given with one hand and taken away with the other
  7. given-nameless
  8. giveness
  9. givenness
  10. givennesses
  11. givens

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: given with one hand and taken 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: “given with one hand and taken away with the other.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/given_with_one_hand_and_taken_away_with_the_other. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.