hands-off
characterized by nonintervention or noninterference: the new hands-off foreign policy.
remote or unfriendly; estranging: a truculent, hands-off manner toward strangers.
Origin of hands-off
1Words Nearby hands-off
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use hands-off in a sentence
The slippery slope argument is a way of keeping the hands-off-the-Internet-entirely philosophy going.
For years, President Obama took a hands-off approach to Iraqi politics.
Exclusive: Inside Obama's Push for Regime Change in Iraq | Eli Lake | August 11, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTFor the most part, the colonels and generals were hands-off and allowed us to do the job we were trained to do.
Gagging the Corps: A Marine Commandant’s War on Newsprint | David Abrams | February 26, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWhat do you think of a federal hands-off policy that defers to the states?
Team Obama had better hope its hands-off strategy for saving the two-state solution works.
Secretary Johnson had obviously adopted a hands-off policy on integration.
Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965 | Morris J. MacGregor, Jr.So far as foreign powers are concerned, we have laid down the principle of "hands-off."
"Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our Forefathers" | Charles Francis AdamsWe interfered under a most questionable extension of the Monroe Doctrine, and asserted the principle of "hands-off."
"Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our Forefathers" | Charles Francis Adams
British Dictionary definitions for hands-off
(of a machine, device, etc) without need of manual operation
denoting a policy, etc, of deliberate noninvolvement: a hands-off strategy towards industry
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with hands-off
An order to stop touching or interfering with something, as in Hands off the cake, children! This idiom is also put as keep one's hands off, as in She knew she had to keep her hands off so he could learn to tie his shoes by himself. [Mid-1500s]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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