hand lead

handle, manipulate, wield, swing, and ply can mean in common to deal with as with the hands, especially in an easy or dexterous manner. handle implies at the least enough skill, and usually a specified degree more, to accomplish one's end

• • knew better than most men how to handle a blade
  • —L. C. Douglas
• • able to handle a foreign language with proficiency
• • doubted that their economy could ever handle more than the natural population increase
  • —Time

manipulate implies dexterity and adroitness in handling, especially a mechanical or technical skill, and extends to suggest, in figurative use, a dealing with something in a crafty, artful, often fraudulent way

• • the kind of courage required for mountaineering, for manipulating an aeroplane, or for managing a small ship in a gale
  • —Bertrand Russell
• • was able to manipulate sequences of words in blank verse in a manner which is quite his own
  • —T. S. Eliot
• • agencies by which some human beings manipulate other human beings for their own advantage
  • —John Dewey
• • a genius of legal dishonesty in manipulating stocks

wield implies mastery and vigor in the handling of a tool, weapon, or other implement

• • the longbow, which was so tall that the man wielding it had to pull the string back to his eye or ear
  • —Tom Wintringham
• • a past master in wielding a golf club
• • wield the scalpel
  • —G. B. Shaw
• • wield tremendous political power
  • —Green Peyton
• • he wields … a very capable scholarship that gives backbone to his work
  • —N. L. Rothman

swing in literal use implies a wide sweep of action

• • swing a ball bat
• • being able to swing an oar
  • —H. A. Chippendale

but in an extended figurative use it can imply the successful handling of something large or difficult in relation to one's capacities

• • a task too hard for him to swing
• • swing a big deal in high finance

ply is interchangeable with handle or wield when great diligence or industry is implied

• • tell them where it will best repay them to ply their pickaxes and spades
  • —F. R. Leavis
• • the experts plied their pens
  • —R. F. Harrod