Dictionary

handwave en · NOUN

Etymology

From hand + wave.

Meanings

1. (literally) The wave of a hand.
   • "[…]In fact I tell this mob"— he gave a derogatory handwave in the direction of the ten or twelve pairs of eyes that were still intent on us—"that I was the original of these Pappa-whatsits." "Papparazzi." 1991, Robert Barnard, A Scandal in Belgravia, page 213:
   • The leader, an upright, broad-shouldered old man, with snow-white hair, half halts his horse with a handwave of salutation, as he reaches the Imperial Crown Prince, then gallops on with the latter hanging close on his flank. 1871, Archibald Forbes, My Experiences of the War Between France and Germany, facsimile edition, volume II, Adamant Media Corporation, published 2005, page 354:
2. A glib statement or explanation that glosses over important details.
   • In this glib handwave by Friedman, the real results are determined independently of money and financing phenomena; given the way monetarists set up the analysis, the rate of growth of money can only affect the behavior of the price level. 2008, Hyman P. Minsky, Stabilizing an Unstable Economy, page 285:

Forms

handwave en · VERB

Etymology

From hand + wave.

Meanings

1. (rhetoric) To explain something superficially, skipping over important details, perhaps appealing to intuition instead.
   • Some readers may wish to handwave this restriction away, thinking of #92;tfrac#123;#92;partial#125;#123;#92;partial#92;rho#125; as a differentiable vector field on #92;mathbb#123;R#125;² that behaves badly at the origin; this approach will suffice for the purposes of this book. 2001, Stephanie Frank Singer, Symmetry in Mechanics: A Gentle, Modern Introduction, page 33:

Forms

Relateds

hand waving · fudge · the rest is history · handwaver · handwaving · handwavy · wave of the hand · handwavium

Translations (3)

pl wyjaśniać powierzchownie (explain something superficially) · ru отмахнуться (explain something superficially) · pl wyjaśnić powierzchownie (explain something superficially)