hand-waving

See also: handwaving, and hand waving

English

Noun

hand-waving (uncountable)

1. Alternative spelling of hand waving
   • 2011 June 17, Andrew Brown, “Minds, brains and woo”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     So when we're discussing thought and conscious processes, talking about minds is precise, and even measurable (what else do public opinion pollsters do?) while talking about brains is just hand-waving.

Adjective

hand-waving (comparative more hand-waving, superlative most hand-waving)

1. Alternative spelling of handwaving
   • 2001 January 15, Jeffrey Kluger, “Obesity”, in Time:

     For years much of this has been explained with hand-waving references to body types and metabolism—broadly accurate, but cold comfort to the estimated 61% of Americans who are overweight or obese and want to have their weight controlled, not merely explained.

   • 2018, Marcus Chown, Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand […] ‎^[2], Michael O'Mara Books, →ISBN:

     You, me and everything in the universe are holograms. This may seem very vague and hand-waving. However, in 1998, the Argentinean-American physicist Juan Maldacena published a paper that shored up the idea that we live in a ‘holographic universe’ and set the world of physics alight.

Verb

hand-waving

1. present participle and gerund of hand-wave