What does "hander" mean?

One who hands over or transmits; a conveyor in succession

Hander

//ˈhændə(ɹ)// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Noun

1
One who hands over or transmits; a conveyor in succession
"Of that vast Frame, the Church; yet grant they were The handers down, can they from thence infer A right t'interpret?"
2
Something having, using, or requiring, a certain hand, or number of hands
"Two-handers generally do not transition to the net as quickly or as often as one-handers. This, to me, however, is just a coaching failure rather than a technical limitation."
3
A blow on the hand as punishment. dated, slang
"I got six "handers", and it hurt. It taught me my lesson, and I never slid down the banisters again."

"Of that vast Frame, the Church; yet grant they were The handers down, can they from thence infer A right t'interpret?"

Etymology 1

From hand (verb) + -er.

Etymology 2

From hand (noun) + -er (measurement suffix) or + -er (relational noun suffix).

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