Word.ws English Dictionary

hands off

hands off interjection: refrain from touching; refrain from initiating any physical contact. Also the third-person singular simple present indicative of hand off.

Interjection

  1. (informal) Refrain from touching; refrain from initiating any physical contact.
  2. (historical) Cut off a hand: decreed by old admiralty law as punishment for pulling a knife during a fight with a shipmate.

Adjective

hands off (comparative more hands off, superlative most hands off)

  1. Tending not to interfere with the decisions and actions of other people (employees, subjects, etc.).
    • a hands-off policy
    Antonyms:
    hands-on

Also used as

hands off is also the third-person singular simple present indicative of hand off.

hands off meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Arabic

hands off in Tamil

don't touch!
தொடாதே! toṭātē!
not interfering with others' decisions and actions
தலையிடாத talaiyiṭāta

hands off in Malayalam

don't touch!
തൊടരുത്! toṭarutŭ!

hands off in Arabic

don't touch!
اِرْفَعْ يَدَكَ irfaʕ yadaka, اِرْفَعي يَدَكِ
not interfering with others' decisions and actions
عَدَمُ ٱلتَّدَخُّلِ ʕadamu t-tadaḵḵuli

Antonyms of hands off

Forms of hands off

Interjection
alternative adjectivehands-off
Adjective
comparativemore hands off
superlativemost hands off

Questions about hands off

What does hands off mean?
Hands off means refrain from touching; refrain from initiating any physical contact.
What is hands off in Tamil?
Hands off in Tamil is தொடாதே! (toṭātē!), தலையிடாத (talaiyiṭāta). See Hands off meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is hands off?
Hands off can be an interjection or an adjective.

Words near hands off in the dictionary

  1. hands it to
  2. hands it to someone
  3. hands of fate
  4. hands of glory
  5. hands of God
  6. hands off
  7. hands on
  8. hands out
  9. hands over
  10. hands round
  11. hands someone his hat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hands off (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: Handsoff.ogg.

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