by hand

prepositional phrase

Manually; without the use of automation or machines.

“to bring up an infant by hand”

Opposite
by machine

Meanings

prepositional phrase
  1. idiomaticManually; without the use of automation or machines.

    The computers went down and they had to do all the bookkeeping by hand that day.

    2 more examples

    Georgia’s secretary of state announced Wednesday that the state will conduct an audit of the 2020 presidential race, recounting by hand the millions of ballots cast in the state, where President-elect Joe Biden is leading. “With the margin being so close, it will require a full by hand recount in each county,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said at a news conference in Atlanta. “This will help build confidence.”

    2020 November 11, Veronica Stracqualursi, “Georgia to conduct full by-hand count of presidential race ballots, secretary of state says”, in CNN, archived from the original on 05 Aug 2021

    A full set costs $245 and takes around 10 to 14 days to make by hand.

    2025 July 27, Kathleen Magramo, “The game is almost over for one of Hong Kong’s last mahjong carvers”, in CNN, archived from the original on 31 Jul 2025
  2. Without suckling it.

    to bring up an infant by hand

    1 more example

    That left me an orphan and folks were at their wits’ end, so Mrs. Thomas said, what to do with me. [...] Finally Mrs. Thomas said she’d take me, though she was poor and had a drunken husband. She brought me up by hand. Do you know if there is anything in being brought up by hand that ought to make people who are brought up that way better than other people? Because whenever I was naughty Mrs. Thomas would ask me how I could be such a bad girl when she had brought me up by hand--reproachful-like.

    1908, L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Synonyms & antonyms

adverbwithout the use of a machine

Opposite
by machine

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Translations

Afrikaans met die hand
  • met die handmanually
Catalan a mà
  • a màmanually
Czech ručně
  • ručněmanually
Dutch met de hand
  • met de handmanually
Esperanto mane
  • manemanually
Finnish käsin, käsipelillä
  • käsinmanually
  • käsipelillämanually
French à la main
  • à la mainmanually
Hungarian kézzel
  • kézzelmanually
Icelandic af hendi
  • af hendimanually
Italian a mano, manualmente
  • a manomanually
  • manualmentemanually
Latin manu
  • manumanually
Polish ręcznie
  • ręczniemanually
Portuguese à mão, manualmente
  • à mãomanually
  • manualmentemanually
Russian вручну́ю
  • вручну́ю (vručnúju)manually
Spanish a mano
  • a manomanually
Swedish för hand, manuellt
  • för handmanually
  • manuelltmanually
Turkish eliyle
  • eliylemanually
Cite this entry
APA

by hand. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20hand

MLA

“by hand.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20hand. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “by hand,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20hand.

Source: by hand on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.