different between hand vs needle

English

Etymology

From Middle English hond, hand, from Old English hand (“hand, side (in defining position), power, control, possession, charge, agency, person regarded as holder or receiver of something”), from Proto-West Germanic *handu (“hand”), from Proto-Germanic *handuz (“hand”) (compare Dutch, Norwegian Nynorsk, Swedish hand, German Hand, West Frisian hân), of uncertain origin. Perhaps compare Old Swedish hinna (“to gain”), Gothic ????????????-???????????????????????? (fra-hinþan, “to take captive, capture”); and Latvian s?ts (“hunting spear”), Ancient Greek ?????? (kenté?, “prick”), Albanian çandër (“pitchfork, prop”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: h?nd, IPA^(key): /hænd/
• Rhymes: -ænd

Noun

hand (plural hands)

1. The part of the forelimb below the forearm or wrist in a human, and the corresponding part in many other animals.

   Meronyms: index finger, middle finger, palm, pinky, ring finger, thumb

   • Using her hands like windshield wipers, she tried to flick snow away from her mouth. When she clawed at her chest and neck, the crumbs maddeningly slid back onto her face. She grew claustrophobic.

2. That which resembles, or to some extent performs the office of, a human hand.
   1. A limb of certain animals, such as the foot of a hawk, or any one of the four extremities of a monkey.
   2. An index or pointer on a dial; such as the hour and minute hands on the face of an analog clock, which are used to indicate the time of day.
3. That which is, or may be, held in a hand at once.
   1. (card games) The set of cards held by a player.
      1. A round of a card game.
   2. (tobacco manufacturing) A bundle of tobacco leaves tied together.
   4. (collective) A bunch of bananas.
4. That which has the appearance of, a human hand.
   1. A bunch of bananas, a typical retail amount, where individual fruits are fingers.
5. In linear measurement:
   1. (chiefly in measuring the height of horses) Four inches, a hand's breadth.
   2. (obsolete) Three inches.
6. A side; part, camp; direction, either right or left.
   • 1950, Bertrand Russell, acceptance speech for Nobel Prize in Literature

     I maintain, however, on the one hand, that there are few occasions upon which large bodies of men, such as politics is concerned with, can rise above selfishness, while, on the other hand, there are a very great many circumstances in which populations will fall below selfishness, if selfishness is interpreted as enlightened self-interest.

7. Power of performance; means of execution; ability; skill; dexterity.
8. (especially in compounds) An agent; a servant, or manual laborer; a workman, trained or competent for special service or duty.
9. A performer more or less skilful.
   • 1903, George Horace Lorimer, Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to his Son (page 46)

     At the church sociables he used to hop around among them, chipping and chirping like a dicky-bird picking up seed; and he was a great hand to play the piano, and sing saddish, sweetish songs to them.

10. An instance of helping.
11. Handwriting; style of penmanship.
12. A person's autograph or signature.

13. Personal possession; ownership.

    • Receiving in hand one year’s tribute.

14. (usually in the plural, hands) Management, domain, control.
15. Applause.
    • 2013, Tom Shone, Oscar nominations pull a surprise by showing some taste – but will it last? (in The Guardian, 11 January 2013)[4]

      Also a big hand for Silver Linings Playbook, an exuberant modern screwball comedy we had, in an unseemly fit of cynicism, deemed "too entertaining" for Academy voters.

16. (historical) A Native American gambling game, involving guessing the whereabouts of bits of ivory or similar, which are passed rapidly from hand to hand.
17. (firearms) The small part of a gunstock near the lock, which is grasped by the hand in taking aim.
18. A whole rhizome of ginger.
19. The feel of a fabric; the impression or quality of the fabric as judged qualitatively by the sense of touch.

20. (archaic) Actual performance; deed; act; workmanship; agency; hence, manner of performance.
21. (archaic) Agency in transmission from one person to another.

22. (obsolete) Rate; price.

Usage notes

Hand is used figuratively for a large variety of acts or things, in the doing, or making, or use of which the hand is in some way employed or concerned; also, as a symbol to denote various qualities or conditions, as,

(a) Activity; operation; work; — in distinction from the head, which implies thought, and the heart, which implies affection.

His hand will be against every man. — Genesis 16:12

(b) Power; might; supremacy; — often in the Scriptures.

With a mighty hand . . . will I rule over you. — Ezekiel 20:33.

(c) Fraternal feeling; for example to give, or take, the hand; to give the right hand

(d) Contract; — commonly of marriage; for example to ask the hand; to pledge the hand

Synonyms

• (part of the arm below the wrist): manus (formal), paw (of some animals)

Derived terms

Coordinate terms

Related terms

• handle

Translations

See hand/translations § Noun.

See also

Appendix:English collective nouns

Verb

hand (third-person singular simple present hands, present participle handing, simple past and past participle handed)

1. (transitive) To give, pass or transmit with the hand, literally or figuratively.

2. (transitive) To lead, guide, or assist with the hand; to conduct.

3. (transitive, obsolete) To manage.
4. (transitive, obsolete) To seize; to lay hands on.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

5. (transitive, rare) To pledge by the hand; to handfast.
6. (transitive, nautical, said of a sail) To furl.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Totten to this entry?)

7. (intransitive, obsolete) To cooperate.

Derived terms

Translations

References

• hand in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• Dahn, Danh, H-DNA, NADH, dahn, hDNA

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch hand, from Middle Dutch hant, from Old Dutch hant, from Proto-West Germanic *handu, from Proto-Germanic *handuz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ant/

Noun

hand (plural hande, diminutive handjie)

1. A hand.

Derived terms

• handskoen

Danish

Pronoun

hand

1. Obsolete spelling of han (“he”)

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch hant, from Old Dutch hant, from Proto-West Germanic *handu, from Proto-Germanic *handuz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??nt/
• Hyphenation: hand
• Rhymes: -?nt

Noun

hand f (plural handen, diminutive handje n)

1. A hand of a human, other simian or other animal with fingers.

Derived terms

Descendants

• Afrikaans: hand

French

Etymology

Clipping of handball. Compare foot from football.

Pronunciation

• ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /??d/

Noun

hand m (uncountable)

1. The sport handball.

Synonyms

• handball

Middle English

Etymology

From Old English hand

Noun

hand (plural hands)

1. Alternative form of hond (“hand”)

Descendants

• English: hand

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• hånd

Etymology

From Old Norse h?nd, from Proto-Germanic *handuz

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /han/, [h?n]
• Homophones: han, hann
• Rhymes: -?n

Noun

hand f or m (definite singular handa or handen, indefinite plural hender, definite plural hendene)

1. (anatomy) A hand.

Derived terms

Related terms

• hanske (“glove”)

References

“hand” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse h?nd, from Proto-Germanic *handuz. Akin to English hand.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /h?nd/, /h?n?/ (examples of pronunciation)
• Homophones: han, hann (in some dialects)
• Rhymes: -?n

Noun

hand f (definite singular handa, indefinite plural hender, definite plural hendene)

1. (anatomy) A hand.

Derived terms

Related terms

• hanske (“glove”)

References

• “hand” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Alternative forms

• hond

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *handu, from Proto-Germanic *handuz. Compare Old Frisian and Old Saxon hand, Old High German hant, Old Norse h?nd.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /x?nd/, [h?nd]

Noun

hand f (nominative plural handa)

1. A hand.

Declension

Derived terms

• handb?c
• hand?ewrit

Descendants

• Middle English: hond, hand
  • English: hand
  • Scots: hand, haund
  • Yola: hoane

Old Frisian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?hand/

Noun

hand f

1. Alternative form of hond

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *handu, from Proto-Germanic *handuz. Compare Old Frisian and Old English hand, Old High German hant, Old Norse h?nd.

Noun

hand f

1. A hand.

Declension

Descendants

• Middle Low German: hant
  • German Low German: Hand
  • Westphalian:

    Westmünsterländisch: Hand

    Ravensbergisch-Lippisch: Hand

  • Plautdietsch: Haunt

Old Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse h?nd, from Proto-Germanic *handuz.

Noun

hand f

1. A hand
2. A direction
3. A behalf
4. A sort, kind.

Declension

Descendants

• Swedish: hand

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish hand, from Old Norse h?nd, from Proto-Germanic *handuz. Cognate with Danish hånd, Norwegian hand, English hand and German Hand.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hand/

Noun

hand c

1. (anatomy) A hand.

2. (card games) A hand; the set of cards held by a player.

Declension

Related terms

References

• hand in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

English

Etymology

From Middle English nedle, from Old English n?dl, from Proto-West Germanic *n?þlu, from Proto-Germanic *n?þl?, from pre-Germanic *neh?-tleh?, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)neh?- (“to spin, twist”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?ni?.dl/
• Rhymes: -i?d?l

Noun

needle (plural needles)

1. A fine, sharp implement usually for piercing such as sewing, or knitting, acupuncture, tattooing, body piercing, medical injections, etc.

2. Any slender, pointed object resembling a needle, such as a pointed crystal, a sharp pinnacle of rock, an obelisk, etc.
3. A fine measurement indicator on a dial or graph, e.g. a compass needle.

4. A sensor for playing phonograph records, a phonograph stylus.

5. A needle-like leaf found on some conifers.
6. A strong beam resting on props, used as a temporary support during building repairs.
7. (informal, usually preceded by the) The death penalty carried out by lethal injection.
8. (programming) A text string that is searched for within another string. (see: needle in a haystack)
9. (entomology) Any of various species of damselfly of the genus Synlestes, endemic to Australia.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• acerate
• eye
• pin

Verb

needle (third-person singular simple present needles, present participle needling, simple past and past participle needled)

1. To pierce with a needle, especially for sewing or acupuncture.
   • 1892, H. Lindo Ferguson, "Operation on Microphthamlmic Eyes", Ophthalmic Review, volume 11, page 48

     […] the eyes were once more beginning to show the old nystagmus; so I decided to needle the cataracts, and on Jan. 31 I needled the right eye.

   • 2000, Felix Mann, Reinventing Acupuncture, page 109

     Possibly the greatest effect is achieved in the hand by needling the thumb, the index finger and the region of the 1st and 2nd metacarpal.

2. (transitive) To tease in order to provoke; to poke fun at.

   Billy needled his sister incessantly about her pimples.

   • 1984, Leopold Caligor, Philip M. Bromberg, & James D. Meltzer, Clinical Perspectives on the Supervision of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, page 14

     FRED: Well, I teased her to some extent, or I needled her, not teased her. I needled her about—first I said that she didn't want to work, and then I think that there were a couple of comments.

   • 2015 Carl Gleba, "Megaverse in Flames", Rifts World Book 35

     To needle Lady Leviathan, Hel has convinced her husband to agree to the heartful offer.

3. (transitive, intransitive) To form, or be formed, in the shape of a needle.

   to needle crystals

Synonyms

• (to tease): goad, tease

Translations

Anagrams

• Edelen, ledene, lendee