Meaning & use
hand-me-down clothing
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Meanings
noununcountable
Clothes that someone has finished with and passes on to a younger or poorer person to wear.
Grammar: No plural and no 'a' before it: say 'hand-me-down clothing' or 'hand-me-downs', not 'a hand-me-down clothing'.
Patterns
- hand-me-down clothing from someone
- wear hand-me-down clothing
- hand-me-down clothing for children
As the youngest of four, she grew up in hand-me-down clothing from her brothers.
The charity gives hand-me-down clothing to families who have recently arrived in the city.
He was embarrassed about his hand-me-down clothing until he realized nobody at school cared.
nounpluralinformal
Items of clothing passed on in this way, thought of as a group of separate pieces.
Grammar: Used in the plural form 'hand-me-downs' when you mean several individual garments.
Patterns
- a bag of hand-me-downs
- sort through hand-me-downs
Every summer we sorted through a box of hand-me-downs to see what still fit.
She kept the best hand-me-downs for her cousin's new baby.
Common combinations
- hand-me-down clothes
- He wore hand-me-down clothes all through primary school.
- grow up in hand-me-down clothing
- Both sisters grew up in hand-me-down clothing and never minded.
- a box of hand-me-downs
- There's a box of hand-me-downs in the attic if you want it.
- pass on hand-me-down clothing
- Families here often pass on hand-me-down clothing to neighbors.
- hand-me-down uniform
- The school keeps a rail of hand-me-down uniform for new pupils.
Synonyms and how they differ
- secondhand clothing
- This means clothes already owned by someone else and usually bought; hand-me-down clothing is specifically given by someone you know, often free.
- cast-offs
- Informal and slightly negative; it stresses that the previous owner no longer wanted the items, while hand-me-down clothing is neutral.
- pre-loved clothing
- A deliberately positive marketing term for used clothes; hand-me-down clothing is plainer and more everyday.
Opposites
Word family
- hand-me-down adjective
- Used before a noun: 'a hand-me-down coat'.
- hand down phrasal verb
- To give something you no longer need to someone younger or poorer.
Commonly confused: hand-me-down clothing or second-hand?
hand-me-down clothing vs second-hand
Second-hand means bought or sold after previous use and is usually one word with a hyphen; hand-me-down clothing is passed on personally, often within a family.
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrase correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Hand-me-down clothing' is uncountable, so it takes no article and no plural: 'wore hand-me-down clothing from her older sister' is correct. Option 0 wrongly adds 'a', option 2 wrongly makes it plural, and option 3 uses the wrong preposition ('of' instead of 'from').
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hand-me-down clothing”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.