second-handˌsecond-ˈhand, sec‧ond‧hand /ˌsekəndˈhænd◂/ ●●○ adjective 
second-hand clothes a second-hand carsecondhand store/shop etc (=a shop that sells second-hand things)2second-hand information or knowledge is told to you by someone who is not the person who originally said it – used to show disapproval OPP first-handsecond-hand reports/accounts second-hand accounts of mass killings
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- "Is that table new?" "No, we got it second-hand."
- second-hand clothing
- Do you know where I can buy a second-hand bicycle?
- Max spent the whole afternoon looking around a second-hand book store.
- Estate agents rank in public esteem with double-glazing salesmen, second-hand car dealers - behind even politicians and journalists.
- For example second-hand car deals are usually contracts for the sale of specific goods.
- This outfit specialises in reselling second-hand equipment.
Longman Language Activatorwhen something has been used before
old clothes, books, chairs etc have already been worn or used a lot by someone else: · My parents are giving us their old sofa.· Do you have any old magazines the kids can cut up?· I was the youngest one in the family, so I had to wear my sisters' old clothes.
second-hand books, clothes, cars etc have already been owned by someone else and are then sold: · Max spent the whole afternoon looking around a second-hand book store.· Do you know where I can buy a second-hand bicycle?· second-hand clothingbuy/get something second-hand: · "Is that table new?" "No, we got it second-hand."
a used car, book, musical instrument etc is one that someone else has already owned: · He made his money buying and selling used cars.· This huge Portland bookshop is crammed with more than 1 million new and used books organized into 122 subject areas.
experienced or done through someone else, not personally if you hear about something second-hand , you hear about it from another person or by reading about it, for example in a newspaper: · I was abroad at the time, so I got the news second-hand.· We only learnt about their divorce second-hand from some mutual friends.
use this when describing something that you do not do, learn, or experience yourself, but through someone else: · Since he left his wife Rick has only had indirect contact with his children.
: vicarious pleasure/satisfaction/excitement etc pleasure etc experienced by watching or reading about someone else doing something, rather than by doing it yourself: · Mothers often get some vicarious pleasure from their children's success.· Many people enjoyed the vicarious thrill of military victory.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY second-hand accounts of mass killingsCOLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSNOUN
1second-hand things are not new when you get them, because they were owned by someone else before you: (=a shop that sells second-hand things)
second-hand accounts of mass killings· I have no use for second-hand books and unfashionable clothes and bits of ornament.· He pauses at a second-hand book store, where the man who waits on him is unlike a tradesman.· Time allowed 00:07 Read in studio Three best-selling writers are backing an appeal by Oxfam for a million second-hand books.· They had second-hand books upstairs too.· He sold second-hand books and rare first editions.· The first two shops sell second-hand books only.· Hay on Wye made its name by dealing in second-hand books.
· I have no use for second-hand books and unfashionable clothes and bits of ornament.· Time allowed 00:07 Read in studio Three best-selling writers are backing an appeal by Oxfam for a million second-hand books.· They had second-hand books upstairs too.· He sold second-hand books and rare first editions.· The first two shops sell second-hand books only.· Hay on Wye made its name by dealing in second-hand books.· Thanks to Mr Booth, Hay is known the world over for its second-hand books.
· And a word of warning - when you arrive in Hye-on-Wye beware of the second-hand bookshops.· I started to wander again, in and out of second-hand bookshops, and then into an amusement arcade.· Browse through the second-hand bookshops of Beirut or Jerusalem, however, and the ghosts begin to appear.· As usual I popped into the second-hand bookshops and, as usual, failed to find any old golf books of any interest.· Turn left into Galerie Bortier, a forgotten nineteenth-century arcade occupied by second-hand bookshops.· Thanks to that wonderful institution, known as the second-hand bookshop, such information will guide us to some delightful discoveries.· You can often pick them up in second-hand bookshops.
· Now its humiliation has been deepened by, of all people, a second-hand car salesman.· For example second-hand car deals are usually contracts for the sale of specific goods.· Mr Fuller, who had been married three times, dealt in second-hand cars and dabbled in property and building.· Clearly selling a second-hand car without an ignition key or registration document would not be acting in the ordinary course of business.· Estate agents rank in public esteem with double-glazing salesmen, second-hand car dealers - behind even politicians and journalists.· This poem is funny because it treats people as if they were second-hand cars for sale.· Clearly, this is a matter of degree especially with an expensive second-hand car.· Perhaps he had had a bad day at the garage and had not sold enough crummy second-hand cars.
· These old shops are still in business today, selling second-hand clothes and materials.· Which is exactly what second-hand clothes are.· The competition set a fairly tight budget so Julia decided to mix second-hand clothes with new ones.· Hence my association with Flip, because they've been doing second-hand clothes for 20 or 30 years.
· Yet whether lean times or creative instinct drive customers to second-hand shops, they remain a valuable option.· There were almost more antique and second-hand shops in some of those villages than there were houses.· Many fairly recent objects can be found at home, bought cheaply in second-hand shops or borrowed from local people.· Old fridges and cookers should be taken to second-hand shops or civic-amenity sites to be refurbished instead of dumped.
second-hand clothes a second-hand carsecondhand store/shop etc (=a shop that sells second-hand things)2second-hand information or knowledge is told to you by someone who is not the person who originally said it – used to show disapproval OPP first-handsecond-hand reports/accounts second-hand accounts of mass killings