on all hands

English

Prepositional phrase

on all hands

1. Generally, by more or less everybody.

   It was believed on all hands that the two of them were having an illicit affair.

   • 1748, [David Hume], “Essay X. Of Miracles”, in Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, part I, page 173:

     ’Tis acknowledg’d on all hands, ſays that learned Prelate, that the Authority, either of the Scripture or of Tradition, is founded merely on the Teſtimony of the Apoſtles, who were Eye-witneſſes to thoſe Miracles of our Saviour, by which he prov’d his divine Miſſion.

2. From all sides; from every direction.