Word.ws English Dictionary

handsel

/ˈhænd.səl/

handsel noun: a lucky omen.

Noun

handsel (plural handsels)

  1. (obsolete) A lucky omen.
  2. A gift given at New Year, or at the start of some enterprise or new situation, meant to ensure good luck.
    • their first good handsel of breath in this world1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)
    • Our present tears here, not our present laughter, / Are but the handsels of our joys hereafter.1648, Robert Herrick, Hesperides
  3. (archaic) Price, payment; especially the first installment of a series.
    • That whoso hardy hand on her doth lay ,
      It dearly shall abye and death for handsel pay1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    • "I see the first handsel that God gives them on their voyage to the Land of Promise; thirst and bitterness."
      (From Contemplations, Book Five, Contemplation 1, The Waters of Marah (Found in volume 1 of The Works of Joseph
      Hall, edited by Peter Hall, published by Talboys, Oxford, 1837, page 88))1612, Joseph Hall, Contemplations on the Historical Passages of the Old Testament

Verb

handsel (third-person singular simple present handsels, present participle (US) handseling or (UK) handselling, simple past and past participle (US) handseled or (UK) handselled)

  1. (transitive) To give a handsel to.
    • She would leave a gold guinea to hansel the baby.2002, Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 55
  2. (transitive) To inaugurate by means of some ceremony; to break in.
    • And it is better undecently to faile in hanseling the nuptiall bed, full of agitation and fits, by waiting for some or other fitter occasion, and more private opportunitie, lest sudden and alarmed, than to fall into a perpetuall miserie, by apprehending an astonishment and desperation of the first...1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 42
  3. (transitive) To use or do for the first time, especially so as to make fortunate or unfortunate; to try experimentally.
    • Indeed there is no contrivance of our body, but some good man in Scripture hath hanselled it with prayer.1647, Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Worse Times
    • The lads, dressed like their papas, seemed uncomfortable in their new clothes (many that day handselled their first pair of boots), […].1886, Gustave Flaubert, chapter IV, in Eleanor Marx-Aveling, transl., Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners […], London: Vizetelly & Co., […], →OCLC, part I, page 28

handsel meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Kannada and Persian

handsel in Tamil

போணி

handsel in Urdu

بیعانہ, بوہنی

handsel in Kannada

ಚಂಡವಾಳ

handsel in Persian

payment; especially the first installment of a series.
دشت

Forms of handsel

Noun
pluralhandsels
alternative formhandsale
alternative formhandsell
alternative formhansel
Verb
third-person singular presenthandsels
present participle UShandseling
present participle UKhandselling
past participle UShandseled
past UShandseled
past participle UKhandselled
past UKhandselled

Origin of handsel

From Middle English handsell, hanselle, from Old English handselen and/or Old Norse handsal (literally “hand-gift”). Cognate with Scots hansel, Danish handsel.

Words formed from handsel

Questions about handsel

What does handsel mean?
Handsel means a lucky omen.
What is handsel in Tamil?
Handsel in Tamil is போணி. See Handsel meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is handsel?
Handsel can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce handsel?
Handsel is pronounced /ˈhænd.səl/ (UK).
What is the plural of handsel?
The plural of handsel is handsels.

Words near handsel in the dictionary

  1. handscrubs
  2. handsearch
  3. handsearched
  4. handsearches
  5. handsearching
  6. handsel
  7. Handsel Monday
  8. handseled
  9. handseling
  10. handsell
  11. handselled

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: handsel (page history and authors); handsel (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); handsel (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); handsel (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-handsel.wav.

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