Word.ws English Dictionary

handtame

handtame adjective: tame and accustomed to being held in the hand; (by extension) mild; meek; humble; docile.

Adjective

handtame (comparative more handtame, superlative most handtame)

  1. Tame and accustomed to being held in the hand; (by extension) mild; meek; humble; docile
    • I badly wanted a little more time to work on training them, but simply couldn't find it — so while they grew up friendly and confident, you couldn't exactly called them handtame.2003, From The Heart of a Bird - Page 50
    • This is a really popular image with British photographers when photographing Atlantic puffins, which can be hand-tame — indeed, I have had puffins playfully tugging at my laces while sitting on a cliff top!2011, David Tipling, The Bird Photography Field Guide

Verb

handtame (third-person singular simple present handtames, present participle handtaming, simple past and past participle handtamed)

  1. To cause (someone or something) to become accustomed to being handled
    • Even children can handtame wild birds, if they follow Al Martin's simple directions.1964, Senior Citizen, volume 10, page 40
    • So now that you've decided to handtame your canary, just where do you start?2003, Brats in Feathers, Keeping Canaries - Page 49

Forms of handtame

Adjective
comparativemore handtame
superlativemost handtame
alternative formhand-tame
Verb
third-person singular presenthandtames
present participlehandtaming
past participlehandtamed
pasthandtamed

Origin of handtame

From Middle English handtame, from Old English handtam (“tame enough to be handled”), from Proto-West Germanic *handutam, equivalent to hand + tame. Cognate with Dutch handtam (“handtame”), German Low German handtamm (“handtame”), German handzahm (“handtame”).

Words formed from handtame

Questions about handtame

What does handtame mean?
Handtame means tame and accustomed to being held in the hand; (by extension) mild; meek; humble; docile.
What part of speech is handtame?
Handtame can be an adjective or a verb.

Words near handtame in the dictionary

  1. handstyle
  2. handstyles
  3. Handsworth
  4. Handsworth Wood
  5. handsy
  6. handtame
  7. handtamed
  8. handtames
  9. handtaming
  10. handtool
  11. handtools

Source and license

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