The Collaborative International Dictionary
Hand \Hand\ (h[a^]nd), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Handed; p. pr. & vb. n. Handing.]
To give, pass, or transmit with the hand; as, he handed them the letter.
To lead, guide, or assist with the hand; to conduct; as, to hand a lady into a carriage.
To manage; as, I hand my oar. [Obs.]
--Prior.To seize; to lay hands on. [Obs.]
--Shak.To pledge by the hand; to handfast. [R.]
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(Naut.) To furl; -- said of a sail.
--Totten.To hand down, to transmit in succession, as from father to son, or from predecessor to successor; as, fables are handed down from age to age; to forward to the proper officer (the decision of a higher court); as, the Clerk of the Court of Appeals handed down its decision.
To hand over, to yield control of; to surrender; to deliver up.
Usage examples of "to hand down".
Both author and publisher have had an honorable and efficient part in the great struggle, and are therefore worthy to hand down to the future a record of the perils encountered and the sufferings endured by patriotic soldiers in the prisons of the enemy.
Of some midge generations treated in this way who continue to hand down their planned disability, Laven said: 'There is no cure for semi-sterility, because it is hereditary.
How to make a fire, how to cook food, those would be the important things to hand down to shivering children.