out of hand
out of hand adverb: without (further) thought or consideration.
Adverb
out of hand (comparative more out of hand, superlative most out of hand)
- Without (further) thought or consideration.
- The questions covered ranged from those that could be answered out of hand, through those requiring some thought and at least a second interview, to those which presented matters for further research in theoretical statistics.1948, University of Michigan Official Publication., UM Libraries, page 175
- I still think that advice is sound, because, if justices do decide a case out of hand on the complainant's case, it is argued, as in the present appeal, that they have ruled, as a matter of law, that there was no case to answer.1954, Justice of the peace and local government review reports.
- Synonyms:
- offhand
- Immediately, forthwith, or incontinently.
- Near-synonym: offhand
- He bad to open wyde his brazen gate, / Which long time had bene shut, and out of hond / Proclaymed ioy and peace through all his state [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.xii
- Synonyms:
- offhand
Adjective
out of hand (comparative more out of hand, superlative most out of hand)
- Barely under control; not under control.
- Near-synonyms: chaotic, messy, uncontrolled, uncontrollable
- Clean things as you go so that the mess does not get out of hand.
- Synonyms:
- chaotic, messy, uncontrolled, uncontrollable
- Antonyms:
- in hand
out of hand meaning in Urdu and Malayalam
out of hand in Urdu
- بلاتاخیر, فوراً, قابو سے باہر
out of hand in Malayalam
- നിയന്ത്രണാതീതമായ
Examples of out of hand in a sentence
- Figueiredo's troops got out of hand and disgraced themselves by mutilating the Spanish dead and wounded on the field of battle.1892, James Fitzmaurice-Kelly, The life of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, London Chapman & Hall, published 1892:
- Can't you see this has gotten out of hand?2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Presrop:
Synonyms of out of hand
Antonyms
Forms of out of hand
| Adverb | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more out of hand |
| superlative | most out of hand |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more out of hand |
| superlative | most out of hand |
Questions about out of hand
- What does out of hand mean?
- Out of hand means without (further) thought or consideration.
- What is out of hand in Urdu?
- Out of hand in Urdu is بلاتاخیر, فوراً, قابو سے باہر. See Out of hand meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use out of hand in a sentence?
- Figueiredo's troops got out of hand and disgraced themselves by mutilating the Spanish dead and wounded on the field of battle.
- What part of speech is out of hand?
- Out of hand can be an adverb or an adjective.
Words near out of hand in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: out of hand (page history and authors); out of hand (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); out of hand (Malayalam Wiktionary) (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: “out of hand.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/out_of_hand. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.