Word.ws English Dictionary

nearhand

UK/ˈnɪə(ɹ).hand/

nearhand adjective: nearby; close at hand; nigh; adjacent.

Adjective

nearhand (comparative more nearhand, superlative most nearhand)

  1. Nearby; close at hand; nigh; adjacent.
    • We are nearer hand to the great coal districts, and there is a tendency for the men to go there. We are nearer hand to the great mining centres than are those that Mr. Scott represented1894, Royal Commission on Agriculture, “Minutes of evidence taken before Her Majesty's commissioners”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volumes 1-2, page 527
    • But whether, when he should break his camp at Forney's plantation, he would go northward after Morgan and the prisoners, or cross the river at some nearhand ford to chase our main, none of our scouts could tell us.1902, Francis Lynde, The master of Appleby, page 518

Adverb

nearhand (not comparable)

  1. (dialectal) Nearly.
  2. (dialectal) Nearby; near at hand.

Preposition

nearhand

  1. (dialectal) Nearby.
    • And when I was nearhand the house, I met Menie, her daughter, and she told me that they had heard word from Sandy that morning [...].1862, Margaret Maitland, Passages in the Life of, page 247
    • but I will tell you that some of my coopers went into the fishing station and vomited, owing to the smell from the whales, and they declared to me when they came back that it was the last time they would go nearhand them1904, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Papers by command, volume 42, page 32

Forms of nearhand

comparativemore nearhand
superlativemost nearhand

Origin of nearhand

From Middle English nerhand, nerehand, nerehonde, equivalent to near + hand.

From Middle English nerehand, nerhond, nerehande, equivalent to near + hand.

From Middle English nerhand, nerehand, nerhande, from the adverb (above). Equivalent to near + hand.

Questions about nearhand

What does nearhand mean?
Nearhand means nearby; close at hand; nigh; adjacent.
What part of speech is nearhand?
Nearhand can be an adjective, an adverb or a preposition.
How do you pronounce nearhand?
Nearhand is pronounced /ˈnɪə(ɹ).hand/ (UK).

Words near nearhand in the dictionary

  1. nearest and dearest
  2. nearfall
  3. nearfalls
  4. nearfield
  5. nearfields
  6. nearhand
  7. nearing
  8. Nearings
  9. nearish
  10. nearlier
  11. nearliest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nearhand (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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