handline

H4A1N1D2L1I1N1E1

noun

A single fishing line without a rod, but usually attached to a reel, held in the hands.

Similar
hand line
RareScrabble 12

Meanings

nounhandline (plural handlines)

plural handlines

  1. fishingA single fishing line without a rod, but usually attached to a reel, held in the hands.
  2. A firefighting hose held and directed by a team of people.
verbhandline (third-person singular simple present handlines, present participle handlining, simple past and past participle handlined)

present singular third person handlines · participle present handlining · participle past handlined · past handlined

  1. fishingTo fish with a single fishing line held in the hands.
    1 more example

    But they remember fishing into the winter. “Christ,” says Bernard, “out there handlining in the snow. You’d come in numb. We didn’t have these modern clothes. Just wool. Or if they had them, we didn’t know.” “No,” said Leonard, “they weren’t there.” “Christ, it was cold.” “We didn’t have any choices.” “Couldn’t even put this much salt beef in.” The conversation turns to a favorite Newfoundland topic, how unhealthy their diet is. Traditional Newfoundland food is based on pork fat. Everything is cooked in it and then seasoned with scrunchions—rendered, diced fatback. “Good for the arteries,” Bernard says with a laugh.

    1997, Mark Kurlansky, “Prologue: Sentry on the Headlands (So Close to Ireland)”, in Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, Walker, →ISBN

Synonyms & antonyms

nouna fishing line managed principally by hand

Similar
hand line

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

handline. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/handline

MLA

“handline.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/handline. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “handline,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/handline.

Source: handline on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.