on hand

See also: onhand and on-hand

English

Alternative forms

• on-hand, onhand

Etymology

From Middle English *onhande, onhende, from Old English onhende (“on hand, demanding attention”), from Proto-Germanic *anahandijaz. Equivalent to on- +‎ hand. Cognate with Icelandic áhendur (“within reach”). Compare offhand.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Australia):

  (file)

Prepositional phrase

on hand

1. (idiomatic) Available; ready; in stock.

   If you have cornstarch on hand, use it; otherwise, try a little flour.

   • 1950 February, “Crewe Divisional Control Room”, in Railway Magazine, page 115:

     Freight rolling stock distribution is the concern of a section in the office. The clerk in charge of this section receives bulk returns from the districts at regular intervals of wagons on hand and wagon requirements.

   • 2011 September 29, Tom Rostance, “Stoke 2 - 1 Besiktas”, in BBC Sport‎^[1], archived from the original on 28 October 2011:

     Rustu failed to collect a Whitehead corner, Shawcross saw his effort blocked and Crouch was on hand to bundle over the line from three yards out.

   • 2024 May 4, Simon Tisdall, “Giorgia Meloni and Ursula von der Leyen, the double act that is steering the EU ever rightwards”, in The Observer‎^[2], →ISSN:

     She was on hand again in March when the EU gave €7.4bn (£6.3bn) to Egypt’s abusive dictator, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, partly to curb migrant flows.

Synonyms

• at hand
• handy
• to hand

Related terms

• on one's hands

Translations

available

• Catalan: a mà
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 手頭 / 手头 (zh) (shǒutóu)

• Finnish: käytettävissä (fi), saatavilla (fi), käsillä (fi)
• Georgian: ხელთარსებული (xeltarsebuli), ხელმისაწვდომი (xelmisac̣vdomi)
• German: zur Hand (de), vorhanden (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: πρόχειρος (prókheiros)

• Japanese: 手元に (ja) (てもとに, temoto ni)
• Polish: pod ręką, na podorędziu
• Portuguese: em mãos
• Russian: в распоряже́нии (ru) (v rasporjažénii), в нали́чии (ru) (v nalíčii), под руко́й (ru) (pod rukój), на рука́х (ru) (na rukáx)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: при руци, на располагању, расположиво

  Latin: pri ruci, na raspolaganju, raspoloživo (sh)

• Spanish: a mano (es)
• Swedish: till hands (sv), tillgänglig (sv)
• Welsh: gerllaw

Anagrams

• hand on