hand-me-down
adjective
1
: put in use by one person or group after being used, discarded, or handed down by another
hand-me-down clothes
hand-me-down anecdotes
2
: ready-made and usually cheap and shoddy
hand-me-down
noun
Examples of hand-me-down in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The final look included Rachel Comey heeled boots, the secondhand Emporio Armani suit, the white dress shirt with French cuffs, silk cufflinks, a silver tie pin, secondhand silver rings, and her grandmother's hand-me-down Peugeot watch.
—
Lydia Patrick, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Sep. 2025
Her friend is pregnant with her second child, and had planned to dress the baby in hand-me-downs from her first baby.
—Natalie Eilbert, jsonline.com, 22 Aug. 2025
Hunter had known his biological father his whole life as a family friend; sometimes this man dropped off hand-me-downs that his sons—Hunter’s half brothers—had outgrown.
—Jennifer Wilson, New Yorker, 18 Aug. 2025
That’s a sign that the hand-me-down nature of music – where the sound of one generation is incorporated and reinterpreted by the next – is alive and well.
—Tom Roland, Billboard, 16 July 2025
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Lydia Patrick, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Sep. 2025
Her friend is pregnant with her second child, and had planned to dress the baby in hand-me-downs from her first baby.
—Natalie Eilbert, jsonline.com, 22 Aug. 2025
Hunter had known his biological father his whole life as a family friend; sometimes this man dropped off hand-me-downs that his sons—Hunter’s half brothers—had outgrown.
—Jennifer Wilson, New Yorker, 18 Aug. 2025
That’s a sign that the hand-me-down nature of music – where the sound of one generation is incorporated and reinterpreted by the next – is alive and well.
—Tom Roland, Billboard, 16 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for hand-me-down
Cite this Entry
“Hand-me-down.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hand-me-down. Accessed 11 Sep. 2025.
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