by hand
Preserved but no longer current.
Without the aid of machinery or an intermediate agent. A letter "sent by hand" is one delivered by a personal messenger, not sent through the post. But a child "brought up by hand" is one reared on the bottle instead of being breast-fed.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “by hand” mean?
Without the aid of machinery or an intermediate agent. A letter "sent by hand" is one delivered by a personal messenger, not sent through the post. But a child "brought up by hand" is one reared on the bottle instead of being breast-fed.
Is “by hand” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.