hand-waving

noun

hand-wav·​ing ˈhan(d)-ˌwā-viŋ 

variants or less commonly handwaving or hand waving

1

: movement with the hand or hands made as a signal to another

Over the last decade, the frenzied screaming and hand-waving on exchange trading floors has started to go the way of the horse and buggy.

—Gail Marks Jarvis

The woman and I cobbled together a lingua franca through hand-waving and the bits of Mandarin and Cantonese we both could understand.

—Madelyne Xiao

2

: insubstantial and unsupported or ineffective statements, arguments, actions, etc., especially when intended to distract or mislead

In many respects, his essay is the quintessence of the form, a frustrating exercise in bland soul-searching, misdirection, and hand-waving.

—Laura Miller

If this explanation seems a bit like hand waving, it is. Many of the details have not been worked out.

—Don Lincoln

… we never, ever take concrete steps to solve our problems, no matter how much handwaving we do.

—Matthew Dessem

—often used before another noun

a hand-waving theory/explanation/argument

Examples of hand-waving in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The catch is that these companies might just be transferring their hand-waving from one set of words to another. —Scott Rosenberg, Axios, 15 July 2024

Degrowth’s prophets offer little more than hand-waving in response to the most elementary questions about their prescription. —Editorial Board, Washington Post, 21 June 2024

In other words, Newsom’s approach involves a heaping helping of hand-waving. —Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 18 Apr. 2024

Conflicts last about the length of a three-minute melancholy ditty, hand-waving away any real resolution. —Courtney Howard, Variety, 7 Mar. 2024

Bruce Butler, of Greenwood, leaned over to tell his 3-year-old granddaughter, Amelia Brenchley, dressed America-themed from head to toe and already practicing her hand-waving. —Kayla Dwyer, The Indianapolis Star, 4 Aug. 2023

Martin is a milquetoast on the matter, hand-waving about heritage and compromise. —Mark Athitakis, Washington Post, 7 June 2023

This isn’t particularly new: His whole schtick is built on rhetorical games that demand lots of sinister hand-waving but contain little of substance. —Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 11 May 2023

But contemptuous leaders and voters who are content with hand-waving and entertaining bluster undermine the democratic idea of rule by the people. —Kathleen Higgins, Scientific American, 5 Dec. 2016

Word History

First Known Use

1827, in the meaning defined at sense 1