hand-wave

A form of handwave — The wave of a hand.

Meanings

verbhand-wave (third-person singular simple present hand-waves, present participle hand-waving, simple past and past participle hand-waved)

present singular third person hand-waves · participle present hand-waving · participle past hand-waved · past hand-waved

  1. alternativeAlternative form of handwave.
    1 more example

    Lastly, he hand-waves away the effects on industrial development by essentially stating that if industry hadn't been established next to the railways that had been in place for 100 years, they were unlikely to materialise - which is somewhat disingenuous given the rapidly changing shape of industry at the time, a notable proportion of which he had overseen in his previous role at ICI.

    2023 March 8, Gareth Dennis, “The Reshaping of things to come...”, in RAIL, number 978, page 49
Cite this entry
APA

hand-wave. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hand-wave

MLA

“hand-wave.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hand-wave. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hand-wave,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hand-wave.

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