Word.ws English Dictionary

heavy hand

heavy hand noun: the act of exercising power, rules, or discipline in an overly strict, domineering, or tyrannical way.

Noun

heavy hand (plural heavy hands)

  1. (idiomatic) The act of exercising power, rules, or discipline in an overly strict, domineering, or tyrannical way.
    • ruling with a heavy hand
  2. The act of executing a task without a light, subtle touch, which often leads to clumsy or excessive results.
    • Harold’s heavy hand with the scissors might explain his youngest son George’s taste in hairstyle: a vertiginous pompadour buttressed by head wings and a ducktail.2020, The Editors of PEOPLE, “George”, in PEOPLE Celebrating Beatlemania, page 31

Forms of heavy hand

pluralheavy hands

Words formed from heavy hand

Questions about heavy hand

What does heavy hand mean?
Heavy hand means the act of exercising power, rules, or discipline in an overly strict, domineering, or tyrannical way.
What part of speech is heavy hand?
Heavy hand is a noun.
What is the plural of heavy hand?
The plural of heavy hand is heavy hands.

Words near heavy hand in the dictionary

  1. heavy going
  2. heavy goods vehicle
  3. heavy goods vehicles
  4. heavy half
  5. heavy halfs
  6. heavy hand
  7. heavy heart
  8. heavy hearts
  9. heavy hitter
  10. heavy hitters
  11. heavy hydrogen

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: heavy hand (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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