as in worry
disapproving
worried talk or behavior
There has been a lot of silly hand-wringing over the latest hike in interest rates.
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Recent Examples of hand-wringing
Perhaps because of their rarity, aviation incidents (or near accidents) tend to generate headlines and hand-wringing.
—
Zach Wichter, USA Today, 4 May 2026
For all the hand-wringing every year about how many prospects decide to attend in person, the NFL has made its choice pretty clear.
—Dan Zaksheske Outkick, FOXNews.com, 24 Apr. 2026
And for all the hand-wringing that this game provided — with the possible loss of NBA Draft lottery odds should the Warriors win on Friday — to have seen genius once again is something that cannot be taken for granted.
—Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 16 Apr. 2026
Snapchat would, in fact, be superseded as the political-comms fad du jour, but Democratic hand-wringing about the Party’s visibility in a fragmented attention economy has never gone out of style, and Swalwell has often been seen as an exemplar of how to be everywhere, all at once.
—Jon Allsop, New Yorker, 15 Apr. 2026
Publicly, without hand-wringing.
—Kyle P. Edmonds, STAT, 9 Apr. 2026
The community hand-wringing picked up when the Bills began charging $8,000-$50,000 annually per patron on PSLs for club seats.
—Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 7 Apr. 2026
Those who haven’t purchased trip insurance, can’t avoid the flight or have to travel out of necessity are going to be doing a lot of hand-wringing before the airport.
—Beth Collums, AJC.com, 3 Apr. 2026
There’s been a fair bit of hand-wringing in college basketball circles about the lack of Cinderella stories in this year’s NCAA men’s tournament.
—Rick Porter, HollywoodReporter, 24 Mar. 2026
Zach Wichter, USA Today, 4 May 2026
For all the hand-wringing every year about how many prospects decide to attend in person, the NFL has made its choice pretty clear.
—Dan Zaksheske Outkick, FOXNews.com, 24 Apr. 2026
And for all the hand-wringing that this game provided — with the possible loss of NBA Draft lottery odds should the Warriors win on Friday — to have seen genius once again is something that cannot be taken for granted.
—Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 16 Apr. 2026
Snapchat would, in fact, be superseded as the political-comms fad du jour, but Democratic hand-wringing about the Party’s visibility in a fragmented attention economy has never gone out of style, and Swalwell has often been seen as an exemplar of how to be everywhere, all at once.
—Jon Allsop, New Yorker, 15 Apr. 2026
Publicly, without hand-wringing.
—Kyle P. Edmonds, STAT, 9 Apr. 2026
The community hand-wringing picked up when the Bills began charging $8,000-$50,000 annually per patron on PSLs for club seats.
—Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 7 Apr. 2026
Those who haven’t purchased trip insurance, can’t avoid the flight or have to travel out of necessity are going to be doing a lot of hand-wringing before the airport.
—Beth Collums, AJC.com, 3 Apr. 2026
There’s been a fair bit of hand-wringing in college basketball circles about the lack of Cinderella stories in this year’s NCAA men’s tournament.
—Rick Porter, HollywoodReporter, 24 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hand-wringing
Noun
-
At the macro scale of society, loss of control seems like a legitimate reason for worry.—
Gideon Lewis-Kraus,
New Yorker,
7 May 2026
-
Their worry is that investors are treating this economic moment — physical supply disruptions, geopolitical fracturing, tariff whiplash — like the liquidity crises of the past, which were solvable with government cash.—
Rachel Keidan,
semafor.com,
7 May 2026
Noun
-
While there have been no reports of illness, authorities urge people to contact a health care provider for any concerns.—
Gabrielle Rockson,
PEOPLE,
6 May 2026
-
Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the HHS, which oversees the FDA, said the studies were pulled over concerns about their conclusions.—
Padmanabhan Ananthan,
USA Today,
6 May 2026
Noun
-
But the following year, as the pandemic wore on and crime rates ticked up, the politics of criminal justice in the city shifted toward law-and-order anxiety, even as new waves of COVID infection struck the jails.—
Molly Fischer,
New Yorker,
11 May 2026
-
War rumbles on Putin, who has ruled Russia as president or prime minister since the last day of 1999, faces a wave of anxiety in Moscow about the war in Ukraine, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, left swathes of Ukraine in ruins, and drained Russia’s $3 trillion economy.—
Reuters,
NBC news,
10 May 2026
Noun
-
During their first night together, just for an instant, Nikki appears to glitch, jerking back mid-kiss and looking at him with blind panic instead of undying affection.—
Alex Barasch,
New Yorker,
11 May 2026
-
In other playoff action yesterday, the Thunder are verging on a back-to-back sweep of their own as the Lakers hit panic mode.—
Alex Kirshner,
New York Times,
10 May 2026
Noun
-
Being separated from her parents as a baby was an unhealed sorrow for Heidi, and her anguish followed her into the messy intimacy of family life.—
Nicholas Dawidoff,
New Yorker,
10 May 2026
-
Her outside-looking in remembrances (Romvari shoots scenes sometimes from the perspective of looking through a window) elliptically convey much – parental anguish about what would be the best call to action for the entire family, not the upheaval felt within the family.—
Randy Myers,
Mercury News,
7 May 2026
Noun
-
Those fears have eased somewhat in recent months as some Democratic candidates advance from the pack.—
Dakota Smith,
Los Angeles Times,
11 May 2026
-
Your co-parent is managing treatment, uncertainty and the very real fear of how this will affect his relationship with his daughter.—
Jann Blackstone,
Boston Herald,
10 May 2026
Noun
-
In the meantime, tensions remain high off the Iranian coast after the two sides exchanged fire May 7.—
Michael Loria,
USA Today,
9 May 2026
-
Later, the Moon squares the Sun and could expose tension between private needs and outside expectations.—
Tarot.com,
Hartford Courant,
9 May 2026
Noun
-
If the Lakers are going to find a new level of desperation and resilience to avoid a sweep – answers better emerge on the horizon.—
Benjamin Royer,
Oc Register,
10 May 2026
-
Then, in a time of desperation, in the middle of March, Brown looked to Clarkson for the spark that has become synonymous with his career as a bench scorer.—
James L. Edwards III,
New York Times,
9 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Hand-wringing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hand-wringing. Accessed 13 May. 2026.
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