glad-hand

1 of 2

verb

ˈglad-ˌhand

glad-handed; glad-handing; glad-hands

transitive verb

: to extend a glad hand to

candidates glad-handing everyone they meet

intransitive verb

: to extend a glad hand

glad-handing as if he were running for mayor

glad-hander

ˈglad-ˌhan-dər

noun

glad hand

2 of 2

noun

: a warm welcome or greeting often prompted by ulterior reasons

Examples of glad-hand in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Verb

The vice president of production (Ike Barinholtz) is more typically the kind of strategically glad-handing guy who makes it to the top. —Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune, 26 Mar. 2025

There’s the contest itself, the Big Game, and then there’s the week leading up to it, a jubilee of parties and promotions, a glad-handing orgy for the sports-entertainment complex and a bucket-list indulgence for fans who can spare the time and the expense. —Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker, 3 Mar. 2025 Buck is a loquacious, glad-handing oaf who has a boring way with a witty story, and is marked for death. —Fred Schruers, IndieWire, 27 Feb. 2025 Carr wanted to bring Broadway verve and Vegas bombast to the Academy Awards, but the stunned looks on the faces of front-row nominees who were getting glad-handed by a Disney princess indicated that Carr’s vision was an immediate catastrophe. —Zach Schonfeld, Vulture, 26 Feb. 2025 The cheers rise and fall like waves as Trump glad-hands his way through the UFC announcers’ table and VIP section. —Jack Crosbie, Rolling Stone, 14 Jan. 2025 The old Hollywood Foreign Press Association was a bunch of glad-handing international journalists who stumbled into a TV deal; the new Golden Globes organization is mostly those same people, with a few hundred other unpaid voters thrown in to provide more legitimacy. —Nate Jones, Vulture, 6 Jan. 2025 Vance joined Trump for a surprise stop at a McDonald’s to glad-hand adoring fans, leading to viral videos and news coverage that aides said surpassed a standard rally. —Marianne Levine, Washington Post, 16 July 2024 Networking at its core, is not about glad-handing people at awkward, structured, networking events, although those events serve their purposes for some industries and are excellent for practicing your elevator pitch. —Jay Sullivan, Forbes, 27 Oct. 2024

Noun

But for all the talk of South Carolina’s penchant for dirty tricks, the state also values the glad hand. —Sharon Lafraniere, New York Times, 26 Jan. 2024 Arguably the most notorious figure from the game’s most storied rivalry flew from his South Florida home to Boston for Tuesday night’s game and was expected to glad hand a few Yankees before, for many of them, the biggest game of their lives. —Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY, 5 Oct. 2021 His medium, his material, is human frailty, the near end of original sin, and the tools of his trade are the glad hand, the scratched back, the padded envelope, the cut corner, and the jumped line. —James Parker, The Atlantic, 5 Oct. 2017

Word History

First Known Use

Verb

1903, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Noun

circa 1895, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of glad-hand was circa 1895

See more words from the same year

Browse Nearby Words

glad hand

glad-hand

gladiate

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Cite this Entry

Style

“Glad-hand.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glad-hand. Accessed 1 Apr. 2025.

Copy Citation

Last Updated: 31 Mar 2025 - Updated example sentences

glad-hand

verb

noun

Examples of glad-hand in a Sentence

Word History

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

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glad-hand

verb

noun

Examples of glad-hand in a Sentence

Word History

Rhymes for glad-hand

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Share

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