at hand

English

Pronunciation

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Prepositional phrase

at hand

1. Within easy reach; nearby.

   Synonyms: handy, to hand, on hand, at one's fingertips, at one's fingers' ends

   I don't have the information at hand, but I can look it up.

   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iii:

     The King your brother is now hard at hand,
     Meete with the foole, and rid your royall ſhoulders
     Of ſuch a burden, as outweighs the ſands
     And all the craggie rockes of Caſpea.

2. Near; soon.

   Synonyms: approaching, imminent; see also Thesaurus:impending

   • 1903 July, Jack London, “Into the Primitive”, in The Call of the Wild, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 39:

     At last, one morning, the propeller was quiet, and the Narwhal was pervaded with an atmosphere of excitement. He felt it, as did the other dogs, and knew that a change was at hand.

3. (figurative) Currently receiving attention.
   • 2001, Ghaith Mahmood, “Problem is about oppression, not coexistence”, in The Daily Bruin‎^[1], archived from the original on 29 September 2007:

     The problem at hand is not the inability of the Arabs and the Jews to live together peacefully.

Related terms

• near at hand

Translations

within easy reach; nearby

• Catalan: a mà
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 手頭 / 手头 (zh) (shǒutóu), 身旁 (zh) (shēnpáng), 身邊 / 身边 (zh) (shēnbiān), 手邊 / 手边 (zh) (shǒubiān), 手下 (zh) (shǒuxià)

• Czech: po ruce (cs)
• Finnish: käsillä (fi)
• French: sous la main (fr), à portée de main (fr)
• Galician: á man
• German: griffbereit (de), parat (de)
• Hungarian: kéznél van
• Italian: a portata di mano (it)
• Latin: praes, propter, in promptu
• Maori: tatanga
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: for hånden

• Polish: pod ręką
• Portuguese: à mão (pt)
• Russian: под руко́й (ru) (pod rukój)
• Serbo-Croatian: при руци (pri ruci)
• Spanish: a mano (es)
• Swedish: till hands (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: el altında

near; soon; approaching; imminent

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 即將發生的 / 即将发生的 (jíjiāng fāshēng de), 即將到來的 / 即将到来的 (jíjiāng dàolái de), 臨近的 / 临近的 (línjìn de)

• Finnish: käsillä (fi)
• French: proche (fr)
• German: greifbar (de)
• Japanese: せまっている (sematteiru)
• Swedish: i antåg

currently receiving attention

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 眼前的 (yǎnqián de)

• Finnish: käsillä (fi)
• French: concerné (fr), en question (fr)
• Italian: in discussione

Further reading

• “at hand”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Dhanat, hadn't a