Word.ws English Dictionary

safe pair of hands

safe pair of hands noun: the ability to catch and keep hold of (the ball, etc.).

Noun

safe pair of hands (plural safe pairs of hands)

  1. The ability to catch and keep hold of (the ball, etc.)
    • His fielding in the outfield in the early part of his career impressed me, if anything, more than his batting or bowling, for he was a beautiful thrower. ... He could run like a deer and had a very safe pair of hands.1919 Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham; quoted in eds Charles Douglas-Home, 12th Earl of Home; George Harris, 4th Baron Harris; Sir Home Gordon, Bt. The Memorial biography of Dr. W.G. Grace...
    • A Safe Pair Of Hands [section title] The stand-off half who hasn't hands like a good fielder in the slips had better change his position, for he is comparatively useless if he cannot take all sorts and conditions of passes, and, in nearly every case, whilst well under way.1922, D. R. Gent, Rugby Football, London: Allen, page 75
  2. (metonymically) A player who has this ability.
    • the veteran shot-stopper has proved to be a safe, capable pair of hands over the years2010 Eric MacKinnon "I'll bounce back insists Livi keeper Tony Bullock after debut to forget" (West Lothian Courier) 29 July 2010
  3. (figuratively) An experienced person (especially a leader) who can be trusted to do a decent job and not to make serious mistakes; often in relation to a task which is difficult and important; often suggesting blandness or a contrast to someone brilliant but erratic.
    • The solid, reliable Monsieur Pompidou was there, as safe a pair of hands as the most timorous bourgeois could wish for1998 Thody, Philip Malcolm Waller The Fifth French Republic: Presidents, Politics and Personalities (Routledge) p.34 →ISBN
    • […] Sarkozy appointed the no-nonsense Alliot-Marie in November to straighten out the Quai d'Orsay, as the ministry is known, after the shambolic three-year stint there of Bernard Kouchner, the glamorous humanitarian doctor. … She was a safe, uninspiring pair of hands who acquired a name as an...2011 Charles Bremner Wham, bam, no thank you MAM (The Austrialian, reprinted from The Times) 8 February 2011
    Synonyms:
    old reliable, steady Eddie

Synonyms of safe pair of hands

Forms of safe pair of hands

pluralsafe pairs of hands

Questions about safe pair of hands

What does safe pair of hands mean?
Safe pair of hands means the ability to catch and keep hold of (the ball, etc.).
What part of speech is safe pair of hands?
Safe pair of hands is a noun.
What is the plural of safe pair of hands?
The plural of safe pair of hands is safe pairs of hands.

Words near safe pair of hands in the dictionary

  1. safe houses
  2. safe in the knowledge
  3. safe mode
  4. safe navigation operator
  5. safe navigation operators
  6. safe pair of hands
  7. safe pairs of hands
  8. safe place
  9. safe places
  10. safe pledge
  11. safe pledges

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: safe pair of 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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