Dictionary

put one's hands on en · VERB

Meanings

1. To assault.
   • I can't believe I put my hands on him like that. I feel awful for hitting him. 2008, E.N. Joy, Me, Myself and Him:
   • No, I did not put my hands on your child. 2012, Daaimah S. Poole, Ex-girl To The Next Girl, page 62:
   • He never physically put his hands on me though he threatened many times. 2009, Michele E. Davis, On My Way to Heaven, page 59:
2. To interfere with.
   • Well Sergio belongs to me; since you had the balls to put your hands on my property I figured they had to be pretty big.” 2012, Cam Rascoe, Hennry Horrowitz Presents:Harlots Hustlers & Heroines, page 180:
   • “How dare you put your hands on my things!” she screamed and growled, slapping and scratching at his face, pulling viciously on the collar of his shirt. 2010, J. D. Mason, Take Your Pleasure Where You Find It: A Novel, page 84:
   • You not supposed to put your hands on my stuff either You racist bitch! 2006, Rha Goddess, Low, page 92:
3. To obtain or find.
   • If he doesn't already own some helicopters, he's bound to be able to put his hands on some.” 2006, William W. Johnstone, Invasion Usa: Border War:
   • Any ideas where I can put my hands on some new shoes for the front and rear? 2007, Walneck's Classic Cycle Trader, March 2007, page 48:
   • He had to put his hands on some money— and soon. 2019, Jeanne Charters, Yellow:
   • I would give a great deal if I could put my hands on some of those paintings (now lost) I did at home between the ages of sixteen and seventeen, depictions of “family happiness” in what we might call the Tolstoyan sense of the phrase. 2011, Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul, page 353:
4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see put, hands.
   • He put his hands on both sides of the wall. 2008, Zack Highstreet, A Plague on Both Houses, page 215:

Forms