Word.ws English Dictionary

hand-wringing

hand-wringing is the alternative spelling of hand wringing.

Meaning of hand wringing

Noun

hand wringing (countable and uncountable, plural hand wringings)

  1. The repeated clasping or squeezing of the hands as a symptom of distress.
    • Whisperings filled the corridors with unearthly sounds — the hand-wringing and breast-beating of the elder sisters — the sighs and sobs of the younger.1862, Anna Maria Hall, chapter XIII, in Can Wrong Be Right?
  2. (figuratively) A feigned exhibition of distress, usually with implied inaction or vacillating in the face of a dilemma or crisis.
    • On the one hand, there is the danger of ineffectual and often counterproductive conservative handwringing over the crisis.2001, Thomas W. Smith, Revaluing Ethics: Aristotle's Dialectical Pedagogy, page 1

Forms of hand-wringing

pluralhand-wringings

Questions about hand-wringing

What is hand-wringing the alternative spelling of?
Hand-wringing is the alternative spelling of hand wringing.

Words near hand-wringing in the dictionary

  1. hand-winged
  2. hand-work
  3. hand-worked
  4. hand-works
  5. hand-woven
  6. hand-wringing
  7. hand-wringingly
  8. hand-wringings
  9. hand-writing
  10. hand-writings
  11. hand-written

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hand-wringing (page history and authors); hand wringing (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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