Dictionary

get one's hands on en · VERB

Meanings

1. (informal, transitive) To get; to obtain; to secure.
   • With my CD and pager in the pocket of my new Inspector Gadget coat, I wandered the shop floor, picking up and sampling the tester pots of pretty much every product I could get my hands on. 2011, Mikey Walsh, Gypsy Boy on the Run:
   • If you can get your hands on the right ingredients, it's an easy recipe.
   • Decisively, there was the prospect of getting my hands on a slice of that petroleum fund. 2013, Tim Moore, Frost on my Moustache:
   • I'd have smoked Silk Cuts if I could get my hands on them more often, but they're imports and cost even more than domestics, which were outrageously priced even four years minus one day ago, and even from the discount cigarette store, where I was already spending a dollar less per deck than I would have if I'd bought cigarettes from the gas stations or convenience stores. 2006, Sondra Harris, Getting My Think on, page 133:
2. To catch.
   • He couldn't wait to get his hands on the people who did this. 2014, Irene Kueh, Carol Cajigas, Silent Voices:
   • That's why he wants to get his hands on Noie Barnum. 2011, James Lee Burke, Feast Day of Fools:
   • Now Lloyd wanted badly to get his hands on him. 2011, D. Talbott, Prizm:

Forms

Relateds

get one's claws into

Translations (8)

sv lägga rabarber på (to get, to obtain, to secure) · fr mettre la main (to get, to obtain, to secure) · fi saada käsiinsä (to get, to obtain, to secure) · pl położyć rękę (to get, to obtain, to secure) · fr dégoter (to get, to obtain, to secure) · fr dénicher (to get, to obtain, to secure) · hu ráteszi a kezét (to get, to obtain, to secure) · sv lägga vantarna på (to get, to obtain, to secure)