Hand-me-down

adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An item that is passed along for someone else to use.

    "Well, I'm willing, I'm able, I'm practically much alive / Well, I'm six-feet-tall, I ain't no hand-me-down"

  2. 2
    outgrown garment passed down from one person to another wordnet
  3. 3
    A piece of clothing or other item which has been outgrown by an older sibling and passed down to a younger one. especially
Verb
  1. 1
    To pass along to someone else. rare

    "“See into life, don’t just look at it” is her [Anne Baxter’s] creditable credo, hand-me-downed from her famous architect grandfather, the late Frank Lloyd Wright."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Used or second-hand, passed along by its prior user. not-comparable

    "And what costume shall the poor girl wear / To all tomorrow's parties? / A hand-me-down dress from who knows where"

Adjective
  1. 1
    passed on from one person to another wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
hand-downsecondhandstaleusedworn

Example

More examples

"Tom wore hand-me-down clothes from his older brother."

Etymology

See hand down and me.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.