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

Word History

First Known Use

1827, in the meaning defined at sense 1