Word.ws English Dictionary

having one's hand out

having one's hand out is the present participle and gerund of have one's hand out.

Meaning of have one's hand out

Verb

have one's hand out (third-person singular simple present has one's hand out, present participle having one's hand out, simple past and past participle had one's hand out)

  1. (idiomatic) To request benefits, especially monetary ones and especially if not entitled to them.
    • Whenever there was an appropriations bill, he always had his hand out for his guys.

Questions about having one's hand out

What is having one's hand out the present participle and gerund of?
Having one's hand out is the present participle and gerund of have one's hand out.

Words near having one's hand out in the dictionary

  1. having one's fingers in many pies
  2. having one's fingers in the till
  3. having one's fingers on the pulse
  4. having one's guard up
  5. having one's hand in the till
  6. having one's hand out
  7. having one's handful
  8. having one's hands full
  9. having one's head read
  10. having one's head up one's ass
  11. having one's heart in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: having one's hand out (page history and authors); have one's hand out (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: “having one's hand out.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/having_one%27s_hand_out. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.