shake hands

Definitions

1. 1

   To grasp another person's hands as an expression of greeting, farewell, agreement, etc.

   • Gerald was enthusiastic. After a while they shook hands, it being time to separate. And for a long time Selwyn sat there alone in the visitors' room, absent-eyed, facing the blazing fire of cannel coal.
   • Shaking hands is probably the most common form of social touch in the U.S., and it’s thought to have originated many centuries ago as assurance that neither party was carrying a weapon.
2. 2

   To part, to say farewell.

   • ⁠But thou and I have shaken hands, ⁠Till growing winters lay me low; ⁠My paths are in the fields I know, And thine in undiscover’d lands.
3. 3

   an instance of shaking hands

   an instance of shaking hands; a handshake

   • Many a shake hands did I get from the neighbours’ sons, wishing me joy
   • He exchanged greetings with his rival, but their shake-hands was rather a cold one, and each looked the other askance, as if distrust was in their hearts.
   • It was the first time a Minister ever left the country without a ceremonial goodbye and a shake hands at the airport, with the tall hats being doffed.

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