Word.ws English Dictionary

third hand

third hand noun: a tool used to squeeze caliper brakes against the rim of a wheel, as on a bicycle, thereby allowing adjustments to the brake cable.

Noun

third hand (plural third hands)

  1. A tool used to squeeze caliper brakes against the rim of a wheel, as on a bicycle, thereby allowing adjustments to the brake cable.
  2. A source two steps removed from direct communication.

Adjective

third hand

  1. Having been relayed by two intermediate sources.
    • I heard the story from someone who got it from the horse's mouth. You're getting it third hand.
    • So I have to find out my child is alive third-hand from the Alliance brass? Where the hell have you been?2010, BioWare, quoting Mom, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: You're alive???
  2. (idiomatic) Not new, having more than one previous owner.

Forms of third hand

pluralthird hands

Questions about third hand

What does third hand mean?
Third hand means a tool used to squeeze caliper brakes against the rim of a wheel, as on a bicycle, thereby allowing adjustments to the brake cable.
What part of speech is third hand?
Third hand can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of third hand?
The plural of third hand is third hands.

Words near third hand in the dictionary

  1. third genders
  2. third grade
  3. third grader
  4. third graders
  5. third grades
  6. third hand
  7. third hands
  8. Third Heaven
  9. Third Intermediate Period
  10. third inversion
  11. third inversions

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: third 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-third hand.ogg.

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