glad-handed

glad-handed is the simple past and past participle of glad-hand.

Meaning of glad-hand

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

(transitive) To be overly friendly with (a stranger) in order to gain an advantage.
- Not in many a moon had he glad-handed so many people. […] The President, in fact, behaved noticeably like a candidate for reelection.1948 February 9, “The Presidency: Getting Ready”, in Time, archived from the original on 01 Feb 2011
To extend a glad hand (to someone); to welcome warmly.

glad-handed (comparative more glad-handed, superlative most glad-handed)

Superficially friendly.
- ...his niggardly back-slapping coupled with an antediluvian crew-cut and a predilection for starched, razor-sharp creased shirts and spit-shined shoes only confirmed the prejudices of the glad-handed, button-down collared, slicked-back hair crowd-his benefactors, sponsors.2011, Tony De Vita, The Pointy House Murders, →ISBN
- Since Thelonius's arrest, Keith had been doing the right thing, making regular and glad-handed visits to Lilette and the kids, and he could all too easily see himself developing an obligation there2010, Martin Amis, London Fields, →ISBN, page 334

comparative	more glad-handed
superlative	most glad-handed

What does glad-handed mean?: Glad-handed means superficially friendly.
What is glad-handed the simple past and past participle of?: Glad-handed is the simple past and past participle of glad-hand.
What part of speech is glad-handed?: Glad-handed is an adjective.

Adapted from Wiktionary: glad-handed (page history and authors); glad-hand (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “glad-handed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/glad-handed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.