hands down
34
3.2
- idiom
- /hændz daʊn/
- Informal
:
con diferencia
- And dragon fruit is hands down the easiest of all of these to grow.
- win hands down
And the biggest winner of all hands down is the US.
- And the biggest winner of all hands down is the US.
- Hardest thing I've ever done, hands down, hardest thing I've ever done.
- He beat out every other candidate hands down several times over.
- Anyways, these hands down, no pun intended, the best.
- And the biggest key to smart marketing is absolutely hands down, data collection.
- Boxwoods are I want to say hands down my favorite landscape plant.
- But you know, he's, he's the hands down best improvisationalist I've ever seen.
- The House Labs Rose Quartz hands down one of my favorite beauty products of all time.
Examples
-
For the money, this is hands down the best radial we carry.
-
Sweet Home Alabama, hands down my all time favorite movie.
-
This is just hands down the best.
-
And the biggest winner of all hands down is the US.
-
Favorite food, hands down would have to be ice cream.
-
This right here is the hands down winner for most beautiful tomato.
-
No, my sister is hands down the best gift giver ever.
-
Listen, you are hands down the most fashionable person I know.
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You're the best swimmer to come through this programme, hands down, by far.
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This is hands down the best pizza I have ever tasted.
Synonyms
174
1.0
Clearly and by a lot
163
2.3
Without trouble or delay
30
3.1
To do something without needing to try
18
3.0
In an easy way without trouble
9
4.1
By a much larger amount than others
1
3.0
People do it very easily with little effort
Antonyms
How Easy
Surface Forms
Morphology
hands + down
The adverbial meaning 'easily; by far' is idiomatic and not compositionally predictable from the literal constituents 'hands' and 'down' — knowing 'hand(s)' and 'down' does not lead a learner to infer the comparative/emphatic sense. The phrase functions as a fixed idiom (historically non-transparent) so a B1 learner who just knows the words would be unlikely to derive its intended meaning without prior exposure.
Etymology
Hands down comes from horse racing, where a rider who was clearly winning could relax and put his hands down on the reins. That's why the phrase now means 'easily' or 'by far'.