Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
hand-me-down \hand-me-down\ adj. 1. obtained or used after prior use by another person.
Note: the term hand-me-down is often used of clothing previously worn by older family members. The term may also be used metaphorically of ideas.
Syn: hand-down, secondhand, used.
hand-me-down \hand-me-down\ n. An outgrown garment given to one person after use by another; -- usually transferred between members of a family or close friends; as, because she was the youngest of four girls, the clothes she wore were always hand-me-downs.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
as a modifier, attested by 1826.
Wiktionary
a. Used or second-hand, passed along by its prior user n. An item that is passed along for someone else to use; ''especially,'' a piece of clothing or other item which has been outgrown by a older sibling and passed down to a younger one.
WordNet
adj. passed on from one person to another; "not too proud to wear hand-me-down clothes" [syn: hand-down]
n. outgrown garment passed down from one person to another
Usage examples of "hand-me-down".
Returning the peace, the boy trotted back to his stall, a hand-me-down jellaba dragging behind him in the dirt.
Dying Earth and Cugel the Clever stories, where sorcery is treated something like a degenerate technology, where making miracles has become a science, where magic is a hand-me-down from a lost golden age of Faustian greatness.
And the harim is of course always that of a wealthy man, who can afford sorbets and oils and silken trousers instead of cheap hand-me-downs that have to last you three years.
I coveted but had given up expecting ever to own: a computer with an ultrafast ISP connection, a hand-me-down television twice as big as the one that graced the living room at my house.
Her feet, however, shod at the time in lumpy hiking shoes and a little later in my poor mama's chic, but outmoded high heels, which were scarcely becoming to her, gradually lost their childish redness and drollness in spite of the ill-fitting hand-me-downs they were forced into and gradually adapted themselves to modern shoe fashions of West German and even Italian origin.
The phone and answering machine are hand-me-downs from Orin's days at E.
Beatrice had been chomping at the bit to buy Mary Jane some clothes before she left town, and no doubt had been sending her the creme de la creme of once-worn hand-me-downs.
She had the three books left her by her parents, a set of tools-a gift from her uncle upon obtaining her license-and a selection of shells, rocks, and mushroom-shaped tree tumors, as well as hand-me-downs from the cousins and what little gear she had.
His heart ached to see them wearing hand-me-downs and Salvation Army giveouts like the ones you saw the nigger children in east Arnette wearing.
Grandmaster Harrat in his fine clothes, my mother and her friend — whom she called Kate as they murmured to each other — in their clogs and hand-me-downs.
The OMS kits were another Space Shuttle hand-me-down and included both the large 26.
The dark-eyed youngster was dressed in a long, hand-me-down tunic resewn for him, no doubt, from one of his father's.
Dad and I bought most of our stuff from yard sales, or were given hand-me-downs by other rodeo people.