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

In Appropriate, Jacobs-Jenkins’s plotting involves a little hand-waving — the money involved in a real-estate deal, for instance, comes out just right for maximal discord — and in Purpose, there is a deeper sense of authorial overdetermination. —Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 17 Mar. 2025

On the flip side, while Denzel Washington is getting Best Supporting Actor buzz for Gladiator, the reviews for the film have been all over the place, from genuine positivity to bemused hand-waving to general annoyance. —Joe Reid, Vulture, 27 Nov. 2024

Elon Musk’s We, Robot event last month, focused on robotaxi services, showed problematic hardware accompanied by a business plan that was all hand-waving. —Richard Bishop, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024

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

Word History

First Known Use

1827, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for hand-waving

• behaving
• engraving
• enslaving
• lifesaving
• repaving
• autoclaving
• misbehaving
• braving
• caving
• craving
• graving
• laving