to hand down
49
3.6
- phrasal verb
- /hænd daʊn/
:
legar
- She plans to hand down her grandmother's jewelry to her daughter on her wedding day.
- hand down through generations
- hand down a tradition
- hand down a family heirloom
Let's say first of all, we're the we're the baby boomers and we're handing down that wealth.
- Let's say first of all, we're the we're the baby boomers and we're handing down that wealth.
- Why is Miller saying handed down by tradition?
- The rest of the money goes towards their properties for portfolio to hand down to my kids and also bank accounts for them.
- But the point I'm trying to make is he says he's handed it down not by like a person, but like a God.
Examples
-
Techniques of beekeeping and honey collection are handed down through the generations (Clauss 1992; Jones 1995).
Academic text (1998) -
Parents themselves unconsciously imitate the patterns of their own childhood, patterns that have been handed down over generations.
Academic text (2011) -
The rest of the money goes towards their properties for portfolio to hand down to my kids and also bank accounts for them.
-
Some of the stories have been handed down for thousands and thousands of years.
Academic text (1995) -
We see this in Roman laws, many of which have been handed down to us unchanged.
Academic text (2003) -
Our tradition of excellence has been handed down from generation to generation.
-
And so he handed it down to Zach.
-
It's been handed down through a long line of sorcerers to some of us living today.
-
For 200 years, the Boghosians made medicines using formulas handed down from our ancestors.
-
The clam diggers like myself were born and bred on City Island, preferably in the same house that's been handed down through the generations.
Synonyms
296
2.8
Give something to someone because you have to
134
2.7
To give something to another person, often information or a message
48
2.8
Give traditions, stories, or things to younger family members
1
3.5
To give responsibility or control to another person during a planned change
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to give or pass to someone younger or the next generation' is directly built from 'hand' (to give) plus 'down' signalling transfer to a lower/next level or generation; the components combine in a straightforward, compositional way. This motion/transfer pattern is common in English and similar across many languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will likely infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Hand down comes from the simple image of an older person passing an object with their hand to someone younger, like a grandparent handing a watch to a grandchild. So, hand down now means 'to give or pass things, knowledge, or traditions to the next generation'.