Word.ws English Dictionary

raise a hand

raise a hand is the alternative form of raise one's hand.

Meaning of raise one's hand

Verb

raise one's hand (third-person singular simple present raises one's hand, present participle raising one's hand, simple past and past participle raised one's hand)

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see raise, hand.
    • She raised her hand to touch his face.
  2. To volunteer.
    • The sergeant asked for someone to cross the minefield, and Private Muggins raised his hand.
  3. To vote; to indicate agreement or approval.
    • Kevin pounded his fists into the desk and started crying. “You just hate me,” he wailed. Mrs. Pascual put her book down and said to her class, “Please raise your hand if you think that I hate Kevin.”2010, Lori La Forgia, Everybody Has A Story, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 34
  4. To ask a question or make a request.
    • The President said that he would now take questions, and several reporters raised their hands.
  5. (often) To assault physically, notionally with the hand or fist.
    • A man should not raise his hand against his wife.

Forms of raise a hand

third-person singular presentraises a hand
present participleraising a hand
past participleraised a hand
pastraised a hand

Questions about raise a hand

What is raise a hand the alternative form of?
Raise a hand is the alternative form of raise one's hand.

Words near raise a hand in the dictionary

  1. Raisches
  2. raise
  3. raise a finger
  4. raise a finger against
  5. raise a flag
  6. raise a hand
  7. raise a red flag
  8. raise a stink
  9. raise an eyebrow
  10. raise borer
  11. raise borers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: raise a hand (page history and authors); raise one's 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-raise a hand.ogg.

Cite this entry: “raise a hand.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/raise_a_hand. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.