Word.ws English Dictionary

on someone's hands

on someone's hands prepositional phrase: being someone's liability or responsibility; with which someone is lumbered.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Being someone's liability or responsibility; with which someone is lumbered.
    • When I started yelling, the other kids started yelling, so Madame Rosa had seven kids on her hands, all bellowing for their mothers […]1986, Romain Gary, Ralph Manheim, The life before us
  2. (idiomatic) Available to be used by someone; in someone's possession.
    • I've got a lot of time on my hands.
    • It is most curious to see that you have so much time on your hands that you are able to simply wander about this house bothering others […]1990, Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day

Synonyms of on someone's hands

Antonyms

Questions about on someone's hands

What does on someone's hands mean?
On someone's hands means being someone's liability or responsibility; with which someone is lumbered.
What part of speech is on someone's hands?
On someone's hands is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on someone's hands in the dictionary

  1. on someone's butt
  2. on someone's dick
  3. on someone's dime
  4. on someone's doorstep
  5. on someone's good side
  6. on someone's hands
  7. on someone's mind
  8. on someone's own dime
  9. on someone's radar
  10. on someone's radar screen
  11. on someone's side

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on someone's hands (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-on one's hands.ogg.

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