hold someone's hand
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to give someone support and guidance
Literally: physically holding a hand
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
If I didn't have to hold my hand because of my parents I'd have given notice long ago, I'd have gone to the chief and told him exactly what I think of him.
My big concern is that nine in one go all at the mini divisions and they're all very much on their own out there, and there's nobody to hold their hand through any for through the probationary period.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “hold someone's hand” mean?
to give someone support and guidance Literally: physically holding a hand
Is “hold someone's hand” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.