hand-wavingn.adj.
/ˈhandweɪvɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈhændˌweɪvɪŋ/ A. n.† 1. Originally and chiefly Scottish. The action or practice of levelling the surface of a measure or containerful of grain by hand. Obsolete.
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1792 J. Sinclair Statist. Acct. Scotl. II. 533 Measured by hand-waving, i.e. they are stroked by the hand about four inches above the top of the firlot.
1811 G. S. Keith Gen. View Agric. Aberdeenshire vii. 244 It [sc. small oats] yielded from 6 to 8 pecks of meal from the boll, which was measured by hand waving.
2. The action of waving or gesturing with one's hands; an instance of this. Frequently in extended use: the use of gestures, insubstantial language, or unsupported assertions in order to convince or impress.
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the world > movement > motion in specific manner > alternating or reciprocating motion > oscillation > [noun] > waving, esp. of hand
waving1612
wafturea1616
hand-waving1827
1827 Hamel, Obeah Man I. xvi. 172 No coup-de-théàtre was ever brought about with..better effect, than the dispersion of the crowd by the hand-waving and the awful summons of Sebastian.
1854 C. H. Townshend Mesmerism proved True 118 The soothing and simple operation of hand-waving, whereby she had been made to sleep, was that horrid, wicked thing called ‘Mesmerism’.
1919 C. H. Kaletzki Official Hist. U.S.A. Base Hosp. No. 31 i. 93 Every person came to a spontaneous realization that..they were going home. There was a sudden fit of hand waving, screaming, shouting, laughing.
1977 Nature 14 Apr. 662/2 In the desire to make the theory explain everything, Fleming occasionally does a bit of handwaving.
1989 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 15 Oct. xii. 23 After fruitless hand-waving in an attempt to get the waiter's attention, one diner audibly longed for semaphore flags.
2000 Red Herring Dec. 72/3 There's a great tradition of bullshit—we call it ‘hand waving’. In the '40s it was radioactivity, now it's black holes or nanotechnology.
2012 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 6 Mar. 13 Despite the SNP being in power for nearly five years, the only supposedly-new jobs on offer are mere hand-waving about renewables.
B. adj.
That waves or gestures with the hands; characterized by hand-waving. Frequently in extended use: involving or using gestures, insubstantial language, or unsupported assertions in order to convince or impress.
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society > communication > indication > gesturing or gesture > hand gesture > [adjective]
hand-waving1845
1845 Douglas Jerrold's Shilling Mag. 1 412 The stone quay, with its line of faces—of hand-waving friends..and ticket-starred porters—glides from before you.
1894 Pop. Sci. Monthly Feb. 519 It is a habit of Toots..to perform his sitting and hand-waving supplications to inanimate things as if they were capable of volition.
1924 Charleston (W. Va.) Daily Mail 17 Aug. iii. 3/5 This shouting, hand-waving crowd is—for the most part—intelligent.
1965 C. M. Shipley Synthesis Teaching Methods vi. 82 In some classrooms, we find a wild, hand-waving demonstration of eagerness to respond.
1979 Nature 28 June 757/3 Freeth's presentation appeared fairly convincing in a hand-waving sort of way.
1990 E. Harth Dawn of Millennium (1991) ii. 29 Underlying the conjectures and the hand-waving arguments, there are facts as hard as any others found in the sciences.
2012 Daily Mirror (Nexis) 2 Nov. 22 Hand-waving, teeth-glinting Mitt finally arrives in Ames, his white shirt so starched it could stand up on its own.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1792