second hand
19
2.2
- adverb
- I picked it up second-hand.
- second-hand cars
- second-hand smoke
- imported second hand
Loading YouTube…
Watch on YouTubeYou can get it second hand if you wake up early.
- You can get it second hand if you wake up early.
- The next strategy to limit fashion waste is to shop and sell second hand.
Examples
-
And then the third option and last one really is shopping second hand from a reliable store or online shop.
-
You can get it second hand if you wake up early.
-
Excuse me, sir, but will the beds be second hand?
-
You can take it to the second hand furniture shop in Irish town.
-
So when selling clothes to second hand shops, I think it's best to make the buyer's job as easy as possible.
-
We do not deal in second-hand goods.
-
So I've thought about buying one second hand, but like what's the point?
-
Perhaps the most economical way is to purchase a second-hand laptop computer.
Academic text (2005) -
In 1988, most garment factories in Accra were closed due to cheap imports and second-hand clothing.
Academic text (1991) -
You can save a lot of money by buying a second hand laptop instead of a new one.
Synonyms
119
1.0
Owned by someone else before
16
2.5
Owned and used before by someone else
Antonyms
How New
Surface Forms
Morphology
2nd + hand
A learner who knows 'second' (another, following the first) and 'hand' (source/possession/agency) can partially infer that 'second hand' involves something coming via another person rather than directly. However, the specific idiomatic sense 'indirectly; not firsthand' (and the related sense 'used' for goods) is lexicalized and somewhat conventional, so the exact meaning is not fully predictable from the parts alone.
Etymology
The adjective/adverb second hand comes from the simple image of an object being in a second person's hand instead of the maker's. That's why second hand means something owned before, not new.