rub one's hands together

English

Alternative forms

• rub one's hands

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Verb

rub one's hands together (third-person singular simple present rubs one's hands together, present participle rubbing one's hands together, simple past and past participle rubbed one's hands together)

1. (idiomatic, colloquial) To anticipate something eagerly.
   • 2017 Interest rate rise: What you are saying BBC News, 2 November 2017. Accessed 3 August 2018.

     ""It's been over 10 years and it's about time we got a little bit more," Ms Tongue pointed out. "I'm rubbing my hands together, definitely.""

   • 2018 Riley Beveridge, No final decision on 2019 AFLW Fixture Brisbane Lions, 3 August 2018. Accessed 3 August 2018.

     ""But I thought when those two new teams came in … I was rubbing my hands together thinking 'we are going to get a legitimate competition here, we will play everyone once and head into a finals series, you beauty'."

Translations

Translations

• Finnish: hieroa käsiään yhteen
• French: se frotter les mains (fr)

See also

• lick one's chops

Further reading

• “be rubbing your hands” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “rub one's hands together”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.