BY HAND

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does by hand mean? 

• BY HAND (adverb)
  The adverb BY HAND has 1 sense:

1. without the use of a machine

  Familiarity information: BY HAND used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BY HAND (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Without the use of a machine

Context example:

this dress is sewn by hand

Antonym:

by machine (with the use of a machine)

 Context examples 

A cigarette made by rolling tobacco by hand in a dried leaf from the tendu tree (a member of the ebony family).

(Bidi, NCI Dictionary)

A device designed for signaling by hand using one or more switches.

(Keyer Device Component, NCI Thesaurus)

A physical object created by hand or machine.

(Manufactured Object, NCI Thesaurus)

On the ground it was a real team effort to lower the drill by hand to the seabed on nearly 1,000 meters of rope.

(West Antarctica's largest glacier may have started retreating as early as the 1940s, NSF)

The enclosed letter Martin found to be crudely printed by hand.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

By hand pressures, after that, he answered our questions, and when he wished to speak he scrawled his thoughts with his left hand, quite legibly, on a sheet of paper.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Of or related to the hands; reference to a task or activity being done by hand (as opposed as being performed with the assistance of automation or other supportive means).

(Manual, NCI Thesaurus)

She was his own Emma, by hand and word, when they returned into the house; and if he could have thought of Frank Churchill then, he might have deemed him a very good sort of fellow.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

"Couldn't do it better by hand or on a tiler."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Martin washed woollens that day, by hand, in a large barrel, with strong soft-soap, by means of a hub from a wagon wheel, mounted on a plunger- pole that was attached to a spring-pole overhead.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)