hand back
phrasal verb
handed back; handing back; hands back
: to return (something) by handing it to someone
He handed the letter back (to her) without reading it.
The clerk handed back my credit card.
Examples of hand back in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Cameras caught Williams, 22, smiling and dancing in his seat to Earth, Wind & Fire, while moving his hands back and forth.
—
Anna Lazarus Caplan, Peoplemag, 29 Mar. 2024
The Pennsylvania General Assembly in the 1990s, for example, forced the state’s oil regulators to hand back money that oil companies had set aside to plug wells drilled prior to 1985, which numbered in the tens of thousands of wells.
—Mark Olalde, ProPublica, 22 Feb. 2024
Leave the weight outside where that hand is placed, put your hand back on the ground, then perform a pushup.
—Brett Williams, Men's Health, 28 Apr. 2023
Now, legal experts said, McCormick’s ruling almost certainly will require Tesla to devise a plan to hand back Musk’s stock options.
—Rachel Lerman, Washington Post, 1 Feb. 2024
The actors wave their hands back and forth over their heads, and the PAC NYC theatregoers—white patrons included—laugh and wave along.
—The New Yorker, 23 Feb. 2024
But by Monday morning, the cold front will drop low temperatures around the region into the 30s, handing back North Texas its winter.
—David Montesino, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 Feb. 2024
One matter of concern is that major commercial-property companies like Brookfield and Blackstone are walking away from their mortgages and handing back the keys to the lenders.
—Desmond Lachman, National Review, 12 Jan. 2024
But on both occasions, Detroit was unable to convert and possession was handed back to San Francisco.
—Ben Morse, CNN, 29 Jan. 2024
Anna Lazarus Caplan, Peoplemag, 29 Mar. 2024
The Pennsylvania General Assembly in the 1990s, for example, forced the state’s oil regulators to hand back money that oil companies had set aside to plug wells drilled prior to 1985, which numbered in the tens of thousands of wells.
—Mark Olalde, ProPublica, 22 Feb. 2024
Leave the weight outside where that hand is placed, put your hand back on the ground, then perform a pushup.
—Brett Williams, Men's Health, 28 Apr. 2023
Now, legal experts said, McCormick’s ruling almost certainly will require Tesla to devise a plan to hand back Musk’s stock options.
—Rachel Lerman, Washington Post, 1 Feb. 2024
The actors wave their hands back and forth over their heads, and the PAC NYC theatregoers—white patrons included—laugh and wave along.
—The New Yorker, 23 Feb. 2024
But by Monday morning, the cold front will drop low temperatures around the region into the 30s, handing back North Texas its winter.
—David Montesino, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 Feb. 2024
One matter of concern is that major commercial-property companies like Brookfield and Blackstone are walking away from their mortgages and handing back the keys to the lenders.
—Desmond Lachman, National Review, 12 Jan. 2024
But on both occasions, Detroit was unable to convert and possession was handed back to San Francisco.
—Ben Morse, CNN, 29 Jan. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hand back.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near hand back
Cite this Entry
“Hand back.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hand%20back. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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