get one's hands dirty

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Verb

get one's hands dirty (third-person singular simple present gets one's hands dirty, present participle getting one's hands dirty, simple past got one's hands dirty, past participle (UK) got one's hands dirty or (US) gotten one's hands dirty)

1. (idiomatic) To get involved with the unpleasant parts of a task, such as manual labour or unethical activities.

   If you expect to seal up every possible source of draftiness, you'll have to get your hands dirty — there will be some kneeling and crawling involved.

   He doesn't get his hands dirty — that's what the henchmen and the plausible deniability are for.

Related terms

• dirty-handed
• dirty work

Translations

Translations

• Finnish: liata kätensä
• French: se salir les mains (fr)
• German: sich die Hände schmutzig machen, sich die Finger schmutzig machen (de)
• Spanish: ensuciarse las manos, no caérsele los anillos

See also

• the cat would eat fish but would not wet her feet