to sit on your hands
12
8.1
- idiom
- Informal
:
quedarse de brazos cruzados
- While the project is falling behind schedule, we cannot afford to sit on our hands any longer.
- just sitting on your hands
- sit on your hands and wait
- sit on your hands and let
Don't just sit on your hands next time, right?
- Don't just sit on your hands next time, right?
- I just want to tell you, this is not a time to sit on your hands.
Examples
-
I'm not gonna sit on my hands and wait for this lunatic to strike again.
-
Guess we got to sit on our hands for a while.
Blog text (24) -
His entire administration sat on their hands.
Blog text (13) -
You think I'm sitting on my hands?
-
I'm not sitting on my hands no more.
-
The longer they sit on their hands, the more time they waste on Harvey and others.
Blog text (30) -
Instead, millions sat on their hands and watched the storm coming on the evening news.
Blog text (9) -
Don't just sit on your hands next time, right?
-
But I can't just sit on my hands and watch other people die.
-
We can't sit on our hands over there forever.
Fiction book (1990)
Synonyms
350
1.1
To spend time sitting and doing very little without a clear purpose
103
3.5
To do nothing when you should help
90
4.2
Watch without helping when someone is in danger
80
3.7
To wait patiently and not act
12
5.6
Do nothing while something bad or important happens
4
5.8
To do nothing while you wait for something to happen
2
9.9
To sit and do nothing instead of working
2
3.9
Stay in a place or situation until something boring ends
1
7.4
To do nothing when someone should act
1
6.8
Do nothing while waiting for something to happen
To waste time instead of working
To delay doing something because you do not want to do it
Antonyms
How Passive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The expression evokes the image of literally sitting on one's hands to prevent using them, so the sense 'refrain from acting' is motivated by the constituents and can be plausibly inferred by learners. However, this is a metaphorical extension rather than a fully compositional meaning, so the relation is only partially predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
The phrasal verb sit on your hands may come from the image of someone literally sitting on their own hands to keep them still and stop themselves from doing anything. That's why it means 'to take no action' when action is needed.