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🎟️ To get with effort ✋ To touch or grab
to lay hands on

to lay hands on

1 4.6
To touch or hold something with your hands
  • phrasal verb
  • /leɪ hændz ɒn/
translation icon : tocar
  • This is the first time that I have ever laid hands on a water cooled MXM card.
  • lay hands on the thief

And last year, multiple times, I had people lay hands on me, anoint me with oil.

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Examples

  • And the pastor stepped up to Naomi, laid hands on her head, and started to pray loudly for healing and for Michael's spirit to leave the living and find peace.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Yes, he laid hands on my little girl, yes.

    Black Rainbow (1989)

  • And last year, multiple times, I had people lay hands on me, anoint me with oil.

    Ryan Pineda

  • It is not our wish to lay hands on your kingdoms.

    Academic text (1999)

  • It could be the day that their anger and rage continue to escalate and they finally lay hands on you or physically threaten you.

    DoctorRamani

  • It could be the day that their anger and rage continue to escalate and they finally lay hands on you or physically threaten you.

    DoctorRamani

  • When she bent down to lay hands on a second set of rocks, I’d had a bellyful.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Whoever laid hands on Ivan could rule Markovy in the boy's name, undisputed so long as Aria was childless.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Mark 16:15-18).

    Blog text (21)

  • The healer asked the volunteers to lay hands on the patients during the ceremony to provide comfort.

Synonyms

to hold
vsto lay hands on
∞ 1.0

To carry or support something with your hands

focuses more on active grasping rather than broader carrying or supporting
to touch
vsto lay hands on
∞ 1.0

To put your hand or body on something to feel it

is broader, including deliberate grasping or active managing rather than only contact
to handle
vsto lay hands on
328 1.0

Touch or hold something with your hands, often carefully

emphasizes careful skilled use, while the key also covers plain touch
to take hold of
vsto lay hands on
21 3.1

Grab something or someone with your hands

covers deliberate grasping as well as simple touch and managing
to take hold
vsto lay hands on
15 2.0

To grasp something with your hands

has identical sense but is phrased without the final preposition

Antonyms

to release
∞ 1.8

To let someone or something go free from being held

to drop
∞ 1.0

To let something fall suddenly or by accident

How Firm

to clutch
118 3.4
to grasp
60 1.1
to hold
∞ 1.0
to lay hands on
1 4.6
to handle
328 1.0
to touch
∞ 1.0
graze
4 3.4

Surface Forms

lay hands on infinitive
laying hands on present participle
lays hands on third person singular
laid hands on past
laid hands on past participle

Morphology

lay + hand + on

The literal sense of 'lay' + 'hands' + 'on' (to place one's hands on something) evokes grasping or getting hold of an item, so learners can partly infer a sense of obtaining. However, the idiomatic extension to 'acquire or obtain (often with difficulty)' is a metaphorical shift and not fully predictable from the parts without prior exposure.

Etymology

Lay hands on comes from the plain image of putting your hands onto a person or thing to touch, check, or hold it; people once used the phrase when they literally placed their hands on something. So it now means 'to touch, handle, or take hold of'.