noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A piece of cloth, usually square and often fine and elegant, carried for wiping the face, eyes, nose or hands.

   "He sneezed into his handkerchief during the meeting."

2. 2
   a square piece of cloth used for wiping the eyes or nose or as a costume accessory wordnet
3. 3
   A piece of cloth shaped like a handkerchief to be worn about the neck; a neckerchief or neckcloth.

Synonyms

All synonyms

hankybroomcapcleaningdevicehankey

Example

More examples

"This handkerchief didn't wash clean."

Etymology

From hand + kerchief.

Related phrases

Spanish handkerchiefflying handkerchiefhandkerchief codehandkerchief treepocket-handkerchiefsmell like a tart's handkerchiefthrow the handkerchiefblow noseblowing noseblowing nosesbreast pocketcleaning nose

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