safe hands
5
4.0
- noun
:
buenas manos
- The global implications of this theft are enormous, and our government wants these disks back in safe hands.
- now in safe hands
And so, yeah, I just felt like I was in safe hands.
- And so, yeah, I just felt like I was in safe hands.
Examples
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They comforted me by saying, "God willing, you are in safe hands."
Academic text (1990) -
Rest assured, it's in safe hands.
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I told you, you were in safe hands.
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You are in very safe hands.
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It's good to know we're in safe hands.
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You're in safe hands now.
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- Sir, Amber and Camila, they're in safe hands.
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I'm flattered I've done a lot of work with the city, so you should be in safe hands.
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You're in safe hands.
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You can trust the team; your project is in safe hands with them.
Synonyms
5
3.4
Someone you can trust looks after people or things so you need not worry
A person who can be trusted to do important tasks carefully and well
How Trustworthy
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is compositional: 'safe' (protected) modifies 'hands' used metonymically for people who handle or care for something, so 'safe hands' conveys that someone is in the care of trustworthy people. This is a common, transparent construction (cf. 'in good hands' / 'en buenas manos'), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Safe hands comes from the simple image of someone holding something carefully in their hands, so it cannot be dropped or hurt. So, saying a person is in safe hands means they are 'trusted' to 'look after' someone or something.