Other forms: handshakes
A handshake is the grip and short up-and-down shake of right hands when two people meet or agree on something. The firm one at an interview, the limp one that makes you wonder, the long one held for the cameras after a deal.
The verb is two separate words: you shake hands with someone, and there is no verb to handshake. A deal done on a handshake is one nobody wrote down. A golden handshake is the large payment a senior employee walks away with. Computers shake hands too, and the handshake there is the short exchange of signals two machines make before any real data moves.
1nounhandshakeA grip and shake of right hands, used in greeting or to seal an agreement.
“He gave me a handshake that nearly broke my fingers.”
synonyms: grip
2nountrustAn agreement made on trust, with nothing signed.
“The whole deal was done on a handshake in the car park.”
3nounexchangeThe exchange of signals two devices make before they begin sending data.
“The connection fails during the handshake, before any data moves.”
handshake is a gesture.
The word hides nothing at all: handshake is hand plus shake, welded together, with no foreign borrowing and no lost meaning in between. Both halves are among the plainest words English owns, which is why the compound needs no explaining once you notice the seam.
From hand + shake. See the appendix for the history of the gesture itself.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove, Body Language & Gestures, Manners & Etiquette
First appears in chapter 38 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word