Word.ws English Dictionary

handed down

handed down is the simple past and past participle of hand down.

Meaning of hand down

Verb

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

  1. To transmit in succession, as from father to son, or from predecessor to successor.
    • Fables are handed down from age to age.
  2. To deliver (the decision of a court, etc.)
    • The jury handed down a verdict of guilty.
  3. To forward to the proper officer (the decision of a higher court).
    • The Clerk of the Court of Appeals handed down its decision.
  4. (idiomatic) To donate (as second hand.)
    • When my older brother grows out of his clothes, he hands them down to me.

Questions about handed down

What is handed down the simple past and past participle of?
Handed down is the simple past and past participle of hand down.

Words near handed down in the dictionary

  1. hande
  2. handed
  3. handed around
  4. handed away
  5. handed back
  6. handed down
  7. handed in
  8. handed in one's checks
  9. handed in one's dinner pail
  10. handed it out
  11. handed it to

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: handed down (page history and authors); hand down (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:

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