back of one's hand

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To know something very well

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Biết rõ như lòng bàn tay

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: palm of one's hand
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

He knows the city like the back of his hand

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “back of one's hand” mean?

To know something very well Literally: palm of one's hand

Is “back of one's hand” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.