English · Idiom Candidate

sit on one's hands

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To refrain from taking action or intervening in a situation.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

không can thiệp hoặc không hành động

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: remain with hands still and uninvolved

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The manager sat on his hands while the team struggled to meet the deadline.

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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Topics: Hands

Common questions

What does “sit on one's hands” mean?

To refrain from taking action or intervening in a situation. Literally: remain with hands still and uninvolved

Is “sit on one's hands” formal or informal?

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

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