Nearhand

//ˈnɪə(ɹ).hand// adj, adv, prep

adj, adv, prep ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Nearby; close at hand; nigh; adjacent.

    "We are nearer hand to the great coal districts, and there is a tendency for the men to go there. We are nearer hand to the great mining centres than are those that Mr. Scott represented"

Adverb
  1. 1
    Nearly. dialectal, not-comparable
  2. 2
    Nearby; near at hand. dialectal, not-comparable
Preposition
  1. 1
    Nearby. dialectal

    "And when I was nearhand the house, I met Menie, her daughter, and she told me that they had heard word from Sandy that morning [...]."

Example

More examples

"We are nearer hand to the great coal districts, and there is a tendency for the men to go there. We are nearer hand to the great mining centres than are those that Mr. Scott represented"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English nerhand, nerehand, nerehonde, equivalent to near + hand.

Etymology 2

From Middle English nerehand, nerhond, nerehande, equivalent to near + hand.

Etymology 3

From Middle English nerhand, nerehand, nerhande, from the adverb (above). Equivalent to near + hand.

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