Word.ws English Dictionary

unhand

UK/ʌnˈhænd/

unhand verb: to release from the hand; to let go.

Verb

unhand (third-person singular simple present unhands, present participle unhanding, simple past and past participle unhanded)

  1. To release from the hand; to let go.
    • He holds him with his skinny hand,
      "There was a ship," quoth he.
      "Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"
      Eftsoons his hand dropt he.1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, part 1, lines 9-12
    • “Unhand' the lady!” said Vernon, in a severe tone, as, at the same time, he draw from his pocket a pistol. “Unhand her!” and he approached the lawyer1853, Oliver Optic, Hatchie, The Guardian Slave or The Heiress of Bellevue. A Tale of the Mississippi and the South-west, B. B. Mussey and Company, and R. B. Fitts and Company, Chapter XXX, page 305

Forms of unhand

third-person singular presentunhands
present participleunhanding
past participleunhanded
pastunhanded

Origin of unhand

From un- + hand.

Words that rhyme with unhand

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about unhand

What does unhand mean?
Unhand means to release from the hand; to let go.
What part of speech is unhand?
Unhand is a verb.
How do you pronounce unhand?
Unhand is pronounced /ʌnˈhænd/ (UK).
What is the past tense of unhand?
The past tense of unhand is unhanded.

Words near unhand in the dictionary

  1. unhampered
  2. unhamperedly
  3. unhampering
  4. unhampers
  5. unhamzated
  6. unhand
  7. unhandcuff
  8. unhandcuffed
  9. unhandcuffing
  10. unhandcuffs
  11. unhanded

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unhand (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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