Word.ws English Dictionary

green handshake

green handshake noun: a bribe, or a transfer of money that the interested parties represent as a tip but that disinterested third parties are likely to view as a bribe.

Noun

green handshake (plural green handshakes)

  1. (idiomatic) A bribe, or a transfer of money that the interested parties represent as a tip but that disinterested third parties are likely to view as a bribe.
    • ended the long local tradition of green handshakes for building inspectors

Forms of green handshake

pluralgreen handshakes

Origin of green handshake

Because U.S. dollar bills are green; the term reflects euphemistic irony, as it implies that a handshake that hands them off is more than a mere handshake.

Questions about green handshake

What does green handshake mean?
Green handshake means a bribe, or a transfer of money that the interested parties represent as a tip but that disinterested third parties are likely to view as a bribe.
What part of speech is green handshake?
Green handshake is a noun.
What is the plural of green handshake?
The plural of green handshake is green handshakes.

Words near green handshake in the dictionary

  1. green hairstreak
  2. green hairstreaks
  3. Green Hammerton
  4. green hand
  5. green hands
  6. green handshake
  7. green handshakes
  8. Green Harbor
  9. green hastings
  10. green head
  11. Green Heart

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: green handshake (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: “green handshake.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/green_handshake. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.