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handle

[han-dl]

Example Sentences Origin

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noun

a part of a thing made specifically to be grasped or held by the hand.

that which may be held, seized, grasped, or taken advantage of in effecting a purpose: The clue was a handle for solving the mystery.

Slang.

a person's name, especially the given name.

a person's alias, nickname, or code name.

a name or term by which something is known, described, or explained.

the total amount wagered on an event, series of events, or for an entire season or seasons, as at a gambling casino or in horse racing: The track handle for the day was over a million dollars.

the total amount of money taken in by a business concern on one transaction, sale, event, or series of transactions, or during a specific period, especially by a theater, nightclub, sports arena, resort hotel, or the like.

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hand (def. 27).

Informal. a way of getting ahead or gaining an advantage: The manufacturer regards the new appliance as its handle on the Christmas market.

COLLAPSE

verb (used with object)

to touch, pick up, carry, or feel with the hand or hands; use the hands on; take hold of.

to manage, deal with, or be responsible for: My wife handles the household accounts. This computer handles all our billing.

10.

to use or employ, especially in a particular manner; manipulate: to handle color expertly in painting.

11.

to manage, direct, train, or control: to handle troops.

12.

to deal with (a subject, theme, argument, etc.): The poem handled the problem of instinct versus intellect.

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13.

to deal with or treat in a particular way: to handle a person with tact.

14.

to deal or trade in: to handle dry goods.

COLLAPSE

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Handle is always a great word to know.

So is creepy. Does it mean:

of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a person who is obnoxious or peculiar

a person who is notably honest, moral, or innocent

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verb (used without object)

15.

to behave or perform in a particular way when handled, directed, managed, etc.: The troops handled well. The jet was handling poorly.

Idioms

16.

fly off the handle, Informal. to become very agitated or angry, especially without warning or adequate reason: I can't imagine why he flew off the handle like that.

17.

get

have a handle on, to acquire an understanding or knowledge of: Can you get a handle on what your new boss expects?

Origin:
before 900; (noun) Middle English handel, Old English hand(e)le, derivative of hand; (v.) Middle English handelen, Old English handlian (cognate with German handlen, Old Norse hǫndla to seize); derivative of hand

Related forms

han·dle·a·ble, adjective

han·dle·a·bil·i·ty, noun

han·dle·less, adjective

o·ver·han·dle, verb (used with object), -dled, -dling.

pre·han·dle, verb (used with object), -dled, -dling.

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re·han·dle, verb (used with object), -dled, -dling.

COLLAPSE

Synonyms
14. sell, vend, carry, market; hawk, peddle.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source

Link To handle

Example Sentences

Over the last couple of years your company has eliminated jobs, and you now have more work than you can handle.

How the administration reacts to such problems can set the tone for how it will handle a more serious crisis.

The annual typhoons and floods are more than a handful for the creeky infrastructure to handle.

EXPAND

Over the last couple of years your company has eliminated jobs, and you now have more work than you can handle.

How the administration reacts to such problems can set the tone for how it will handle a more serious crisis.

The annual typhoons and floods are more than a handful for the creeky infrastructure to handle.

Join the shark research team and see how well you can handle the catch.

City dwellers may handle pressure differently from those who live in less populated areas.

Walk among life-sized, robotic dinosaurs and handle specimens during your visit.

Both the upper fixed handle and the lower rotating handle are coated in plastic for additional comfort.

Today's performance processors were designed to handle the rich internet.

There are many ways to manage your finances online, but many of them handle only the paying of run-of-the-mill bills.

How you handle that scenario can be as important as what you say or do during an interview.

The economy is simply not ready to handle fiscal consolidation.

Robots couldn't handle the intense radiation, so nuclear cleanup fell to brave souls.

God may work in mysterious ways–but cognitive science is getting a handle on them.

We'll probably need a committee, somebody to handle public relations, maybe a lawyer.

When fresh, however, marzipan is tasty and easy to handle.

The handle has an internal cavity containing a compressed gas source and the blade is affixed to the handle.

Unable to handle behavior disorders, many schools use forcible restraint.

In previous entries of my sabbatical diary, one topic that arose was how to handle expansive periods of unstructured time.

These are even harder to handle than moisture contents and vortex velocities.

Training newbie guards to handle prison conflicts.

God may work in mysterious ways--but cognitive science is getting a handle on them.

Tour the galleries and explore interactive carts where you can handle brushes, palettes, bison hide and bottle caps.

Just pop the handle free and slide the fruit from the corer's stem.

Adjustable ergonomic handle effortlessly positions canister under furniture.

Maybe because it conforms to a storyline that the press thinks it knows how to handle.

Deficits have nothing to do with me, only the government can handle them.

The researchers grew the bristles onto a thin brush handle by sticking the handle into a furnace of carbon-rich vapors.

Metaphysics does answer some problems that science can not, and epistomology is something that science can not even handle.

Bison-backed dinosaurs would have been obligated to take up a different posture to handle all that extra bulk.

We use medium ones, which are the easiest for first-timers to handle.

One of the few foil cutters that can handle the curse of the hirsute.

Ability to handle stress and perform responsibilities at a high level in a dynamic environment.

Any compromise on how to handle cross-listing companies and their audits would by necessity be messy.

Not surprisingly, a community's economic status plays a large role in how well its people may handle a natural disaster.

To get a handle on these cravings, researchers presented human subjects with cues for a monetary gift.

Rest them on their heads till their tails curl so they are easier to handle.

Handle pods carefully, since they contain short, stiff fibers that can irritate skin and eyes add to my plant list.

To handle the crowds, the university has two separate ceremonies, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

In the fynbos, various species of native ants handle seeds of different sizes.

The key seems to be stress, with large variations on how well particular individual's bodies handle or don't handle stress.

The well's pump handle was removed and the cholera outbreak ended.

Once you get your grafted tomato plant home, you have to handle it a bit differently than you would seed-grown tomatoes.

We'd handle the teaching and the research, and we'd have administrators in charge of administrative things.

Lots of tips for teachers and families on how to handle and prepare food properly.

Our minds have evolved to handle these predictable bits of information with ease.

If you can't handle the responsibility of a tattoo, don't get one.

Lift crabs out with tongs and rinse with cold running water until cool enough to handle.

Decline over the phone because that is the polite way to handle it.

Carrying options include handle, padded shoulder strap, or rear strap to slide over luggage handle.

Whether or not lawyers can negotiate finder's fees, they can certainly handle personal injury claims.

Or maybe it was when she got a little hard to handle on the way home.

Last week's post generated many excellent comments and suggestions to faculty about how to handle these sensitive issues.

Tumbling composters consist of a rotating drum with a handle on a raised frame.

We need to handle these problems with all due respect to all the nations an people.

Well, hang on a minute: there are ways to handle it that don't commit you to a lifetime of pruning.

Instead, they have rods, which handle vision in low light.

Likewise, practicing complex sentences helps aphasics handle simple ones.

Use the grind your coffee equipment is designed to handle.

Bugs might be little, but they can handle some major flying feats.

Some are bound to handle the conditions, no matter what they are.

Trees that can handle the wind's effects best will alter their shape to deal with the load of the wind.

Get ready for all the funky, soulful, smooth music you can handle.

They look great and can be worn all day at work but they are rugged enough to handle slush and ice covered sidewalks.

If you can't easily push a screwdriver up to its handle into the turf, the soil is compacted and needs aeration.

Comfortable slide-out trolley handle for easy carting.

Handle seedlings by their leaves to avoid damaging the tender stems.

Nonetheless, it's not an animal you'd want to handle.

If you can't push a screwdriver up to its handle into the turf, it's time to aerate.

He moved down the spine toward the tail, probing around each vertebra with the handle of his brush.

Those pruners where one handle is movable are also great for those of us no longer in their thirties or forties.

The computer revolution he helped to bring about transformed the way people handle information.

Noise-canceling headphones that handle the rigors of the road while offering solid sound quality.

Huge mechanical arms protrude into the room, which control smaller arms within each cell to handle the fuel.

Hydrogen, which can be made electrolytically from water and used to power fuel cells, is difficult to handle.

Marines find a place to learn how to handle live chemical and biological warfare agents.

Sometimes the ball was carved as a human head that would fly off the club's handle and smack an enemy brave.

The left handle can be pushed forward and back to control the rudder.

It is not possible to accurately predict how an individual will handle a drug on.

However, no single factory can handle such bulk, so five different suppliers must share the order.

In a few years, computers and other devices will handle light as well as electrons.

At the indicated moment, every player must depress the button on the handle.

The university has thrown the thing back to the dept to handle.

Yet both the company and the communist hell-hole face the tricky question of how to handle the succession at the top.

Using aftereffects to probe visual function reveals how the eye and brain handle colors and contours.

If you want some art on your skin for a while, see how you handle henna tattoos.

It's going to be a day to learn how to handle seemingly simple scenarios that can grow into problems for a flight crew.

Unless you are trained to deal with this kind of stuff, don't handle it yourself.

But plenty of other industrialising countries also handle back-office work.

Texas has more wind-generation capacity than the grid can handle.

Although researchers have a handle on what makes the substance so.

Ladd is a little hard to handle as is so often the case with people of great talent," one colleague tactfully.

It can handle all your chat needs across nearly a dozen platforms, putting all your friends in one place.

Must be able to work with limited supervision and handle multiple tasks.

The guard would have sat between the sword's steel blade and its wooden handle.

Large quantum computers could in principle handle some of the toughest computing problems, such as factoring numbers.

It also insultingly underestimates what their audience can handle.

My pet peeve: bathroom doors hinged in a way that require people to touch the handle or knob to exit.

In the first days after the book's release, they had to handle a certain amount of breathless.

Most of them are based in financial centres that do not handle much global business.

The telcos argue that they will need to invest to handle the growing bandwidth demand.

She got up onto her feet and gripped the handle on the door of her car.

I've been reading an exhaustive list of threads but can't seem to get a handle on this one.

Mexican distributors, who may handle cocaine and methamphetamine as well as marijuana, have diversified into production.

Trees that can handle the wind's effects best will alter their.

Adapting to extreme weather calls a combination of restoring wetland and building drains and sewers that can handle the water.

Charitable organizations say that hiring online specialists to handle their fundraising efforts is money well spent.

Go grocery shopping, take the dog for a walk, and let the answering machine handle your calls.

Good firms are different from bad in the way they handle it, not in the volume they experience.

To further complicate matters, the wool industry is split over the best way to handle the situation.

Researchers are trying to get a handle on the impact of these new social tools on our minds.

We are curious about how other keepers of backyard flocks handle flooring material.

Fortunately, newer electronics are often able to handle a wide range of voltages.

And certainly, today's youth need to have a better handle on geography.

If they handle it well, of course, that volume will fall.

However, the operators who facilitate these trips may be more of a threat in the way they handle these sharks.

Microprocessors are now so fast that they can synthesize and handle directly both sound-and-image data and radio signals.

Second, the vehicle is too flimsy to handle homemade bombs.

After all, the current online system was not designed to handle the projected increases in volume.

It is impossible for people to handle all the incoming signals, and surprisingly hard for a computer, too.

Most polar bears can handle a single season of early ice breakup, the authors write.

My question is not about how to handle said colleague.

They learned to handle strategic, rather than purely tactical, concepts.

But no final decision has been made on how to handle the site once the excavations ar complete.

Women typically handle the family finances and are quite gifted at managing money in hard economic times.

Dexterity: fine manipulation sufficient to operate a keyboard, handle individual papers, write and take notes.

Above all, the government shows no sign of trying to handle the cases in a principled, consistent manner.

What is really interesting is how various bee's handle different situations.

Perhaps consider adoption if you don't think you can handle it.

The terrain is too lava-choked to handle singletrack, but there are a number of dirt roads to ride.

It is extremely rare for universities to use outside lawyers to handle their contract negotiations.

Faisal, who was both tough and admired for his piety, knew how to handle them.

Once this has been achieved it's hoped the robot can be used to handle cargo, or even for rescue missions.

The existing energy infrastructure needs an additional component to handle the growth of wind to meet its potential.

We don't have the judgment and skills of the adults to handle hazardous materials.

Forward-thinking experts are getting a better handle on the growing global water shortage and coming.

People need to know how to handle pleasure, of all kinds, and clean up after themselves.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

handle (ˈhænd^əl)

—n
1.	the part of a utensil, drawer, etc, designed to be held in order to move, use, or pick up the object
2.	(NZ) a glass beer mug with a handle
3.	slang a person's name or title
4.	a CB radio slang name for call sign
5.	an opportunity, reason, or excuse for doing something: his background served as a handle for their mockery
6.	the quality, as of textiles, perceived by touching or feeling
7.	the total amount of a bet on a horse race or similar event
8.	informal fly off the handle to become suddenly extremely angry

—vb
9.	to pick up and hold, move, or touch with the hands
10.	to operate or employ using the hands: the boy handled the reins well
11.	to have power or control over: my wife handles my investments
12.	to manage successfully: a secretary must be able to handle clients
13.	to discuss (a theme, subject, etc)
14.	to deal with or treat in a specified way: I was handled with great tact
15.	to trade or deal in (specified merchandise)
16.	(intr) to react or respond in a specified way to operation or control: the car handles well on bends

[Old English; related to Old Saxon handlon (vb), Old High German hantilla towel]

'handleable

—*adj*

'handled

—*adj*

'handleless

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

handle

O.E. handle, formed from hand in the sense of a tool in the way thimble was formed from thumb. The verb is O.E. handlian "to touch or move with the hands." Akin to O.N. höndla "th seize, capture," Dan. handle "to trade, deal," Ger. handeln "to bargain, trade." The commercial sense was weaker in

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Eng. than in some other Gmc. languages, but it emerged in Amer.Eng. (1888) from the notion of something passing through one's hands. The slang sense of "nickname" is first recorded 1870. Handlebar first recorded 1887 (as two words), in reference to bicycles; of mustaches, it is first recorded 1933. To fly off the handle (1843) is a figurative reference to an axe head. To get a handle on "get control of" is first recorded 1972. Handler "boxer's assistant" (1950) was originally in dogfights or cockfights (1825).

COLLAPSE

Slang Dictionary

handle definition

n.
a person's name or nickname. (Western jargon and then citizens band radio.) : My handle is Goober. You can call me Goob.
n.
a way of dealing with something; a grasp of a problem. : As soon as I get a handle on this Wilson matter, I'll give you a buzz.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source

FOLDOC

Computing Dictionary

handle definition

1. A simple item of data that identifies a resource. For example, a Unix file handle identifies an open file and associated data such as whether it was opened for read or write and the current read/write position. On the Macintosh, a handle is a pointer to a pointer to some dynamically-allocated memory. The extra level of indirection allows on-the-fly memory compaction or garbage collection without invalidating application program references to the allocated memory.
2. An alias used intended to conceal a user's true identity in an electronic message. The term is common on Citizen's Band and other amateur radio but, in that context usually means the user's real name as FCC rules forbid concealing one's identity.
Use of grandiose handles is characteristic of crackers, weenies, spods, and other lower forms of network life; true hackers travel on their own reputations.
Compare nick.
[Jargon File]
3. domain handle.
(2004-07-20)

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

handle

In addition to the idioms beginning with handle, also see fly off the handle; get a fix (handle) on.

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Idioms & Phrases

handle

fly off the handle

get a fix (handle) on

Matching Quote

"One who can handle a pen will never have to beg."

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