Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

sit on one's hands

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.22 in modern English

Syllables: sit on one's hands
IPA

18

Scrabble Score

14

Letters

1

Syllables

9

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To remain idle when action is needed, perhaps because of fear, ignorance, complacency, indecisiveness, or dislike of the person(s) or situation.

verb

To fail to applaud when expected to.

Informal

Example Sentences

""Ministers cannot continue to sit on their hands, hoping this dispute will go away. Our members are fully prepared to fight tooth-and-nail for a negotiated settlement," RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch has warned."
"While Boston is a "musical town," audiences here sat on their hands a good part of the time."

Usage

Informal

Inflected Forms

sits on one's hands (present, singular) sitting on one's hands (participle, present) sat on one's hands (participle, past) sat on one's hands (past)

Phrases

hand-sitter sit on one's ass take a stand take sitting down

Frequently Paired Words

hand-sitter sit on one's ass take a stand take sitting down twiddle one's thumbs

Synonyms

arse about arse around bludge bum around cabbage clown around dally dawdle dick about dick around diddle dilly-dally

Questions

What does sit on one's hands mean?: To remain idle when action is needed, perhaps because of fear, ignorance, complacency, indecisiveness, or dislike of the person(s) or situation.

How to pronounce sit on one's hands

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