minute hand
1
1.6
- noun
- /ˈmɪnɪt hænd/
:
manecilla de los minutos
- I always check how much time is left by watching the minute hand on my wristwatch.
- minute hand and the hour
Examples
-
Zoom in on the minute hand as it clicks to exactly 2:15.
Fiction book (1994) -
I cannot believe how slow the minute hand moves.
Fiction book (1990) -
I walked no faster than the minute hand on the clock.
Academic text (2007) -
There I can watch the clock's long minute hand click and jump from one line to the next, see time pass between the numbers.
Fiction book (1991) -
And things are getting worse for Penelope... because the minute hand is almost to the six.
-
A watch's minute hand moves faster than I do.
Fiction book (2002) -
The chess clock had been punched, the minute hand had begun its circle.
Fiction book (1999) -
The big old school clock made a slight tick as the minute hand twitched and moved on.
Fiction book (1990) -
After a long beat, the minute hand clicks over to 5:11.
Fiction book (1995) -
I dragged myself into the bedroom, flopped onto the bed, and watched the minute hand creep around the dial on my wristwatch until it was time to go to my parents.
Fiction book (1999)
Synonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'the long hand on a clock that shows the minutes' is directly and compositionally derived from 'minute' (a 60-second unit) + 'hand' (a clock pointer). This is a common, literal compound found across languages and clock vocabularies, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand it.
Etymology
Minute hand comes from clocks where a long pointer, the hand, was used to point to the small marks called 'minutes'. That's why minute hand now means 'the long hand on a clock that shows the minutes'.