Word.ws English Dictionary

rub one's hands

rub one's hands is the alternative form of rub one's hands together.

Meaning of rub one's hands together

Verb

rub one's hands together (third-person singular simple present rubs one's hands together, present participle rubbing one's hands together, simple past and past participle rubbed one's hands together)

  1. (colloquial, idiomatic) To anticipate something eagerly.
    • ""It's been over 10 years and it's about time we got a little bit more," Ms Tongue pointed out. "I'm rubbing my hands together, definitely.""2017 Interest rate rise: What you are saying BBC News, 2 November 2017. Accessed 3 August 2018.

Forms of rub one's hands

third-person singular presentrubs one's hands
present participlerubbing one's hands
past participlerubbed one's hands
pastrubbed one's hands

Questions about rub one's hands

What is rub one's hands the alternative form of?
Rub one's hands is the alternative form of rub one's hands together.

Words near rub one's hands in the dictionary

  1. rub off
  2. rub off on
  3. rub one off
  4. rub one out
  5. rub one's face with a brass candlestick
  6. rub one's hands
  7. rub one's hands together
  8. rub oneself off
  9. rub out
  10. rub salt in someone's wounds
  11. rub salt in the wound

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rub one's hands (page history and authors); rub one's hands together (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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Cite this entry: “rub one's hands.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rub_one%27s_hands. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.