SECONDHAND Definition & Meaning

View synonyms for

secondhand

[ sek-uhnd-hand ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

not directly known or experienced; obtained from others or from books:
Most of our knowledge is secondhand.
previously used or owned:
secondhand clothes.
dealing in previously used goods:
a secondhand bookseller.

adverb

after another user or owner:
He bought it secondhand.
indirectly; at second hand:
He heard the news secondhand.

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��o�Ի�·�󲹲Ի�Ļ�·�Ա�� noun

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of secondhand¹

First recorded in 1645–55; second ¹ + hand

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Example Sentences

And perhaps because we’ve largely tried to buy mostly used and secondhand, the sacrifice felt most acutely has been in the loss of our most precious resource: time.

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Seyfried and Moore shared with each other the specifics of how they experienced addiction secondhand.

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The jury heard ample testimony about Johnson and Clement, but witnesses offered mostly secondhand accounts of Stinson’s role in the gang.

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Joshua Morey knows their stories only secondhand, but now, “it’s become my life’s mission, our Japanese American story in America.”

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What level of grief is appropriate, after all, if you are experiencing it secondhand?

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