to work with one's hands
9
3.6
- phrasal verb
:
trabajar con las manos
- As a carpenter, I love to work with my hands to create beautiful furniture.
- love working with my hands
- want to work with my hands
- people who work with their hands
And it's about the kind of like intellectual significance of working with one's hands, of making things with one's hands.
- And it's about the kind of like intellectual significance of working with one's hands, of making things with one's hands.
Examples
-
I enjoy working with my hands, exponentially more than anything I ever did behind a desk.
Blog text (13) -
But it's so nice to see that there are actual artisans that still work with their hands.
-
I like to work with my hands.
-
You get into this job because you like to work with your hands.
-
I work with my hands.
-
Like yourself, I need to work with my hands in order to feel connected to my work.
Blog text (15) -
Through her research, Sarah realized that she loved being outdoors and working with her hands.
Academic text (2015) -
All his life he'd worked with his hands.
-
He's never been a scholar; he much prefers working with his hands.
Fiction book (1992) -
Working with your hands, now that’s something to be proud of.
Synonyms
∞
2.3
To move and shape materials with hands or tools
17
3.7
To make something by hand with skill and care
How Hands-On
9
3.6
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly built from 'work' + 'with' + 'one's hands' where 'with' marks the instrument and 'hands' signals manual/physical activity; a B1 learner who knows these words will readily infer manual or craft labor rather than mental work. This instrumental composition is cross-linguistically common and follows a standard English pattern, so the phrase is immediately comprehensible from its parts.
Etymology
The phrase work with one's hands comes from the simple picture of someone using their hands to shape, fix, or build things, like a carpenter or baker. So, it means 'to do physical work with your hands'.