Meaning

Secondhand..

Definitions by Sense

1. Secondhand.
2. Ersatz.
3. In second place, repeating another.

Example Sentences

The common error in most architectural schools is that basic design is taught at an abstract level using contemporary artists as examples to go by. This secondhanded process usually produces little Mondrians, Bauers, Gabos, Moores or, if the faculty member has enough to offer, little duplications of himself.

“A grand scale is impersonal, and my thing, as you call it, is real and right here, right now, not some secondhanded satisfaction lording it over the flies."

Other Federalist essayists urged the citizens of North carolina to cultivate an attachment to the national government "as necessary to our general happiness and as the best security against oppression,” while portraying John Adams as the leading figure in the American impulse toward liberty in 1776 and Jefferson as “only a secondhanded varnished Deist."

The well-springs of scientific truth are not so far exhausted that there is nothing left for the engineering teacher, in the way of research, but to work at it secondhanded, perhaps going no further than to corroborate the earlier work undertaken by manufacturers.

Of course, I think we go secondhanded into most of these conferences anyway, but in this case we would have a definite assurance we would be going in secondhanded.

But I suppose I am giving you all this second-handed, as you have probably seen the substance of it in the papers.

Word Forms

• second-handed

Related Words

When Should You Use Secondhanded?

Use secondhanded when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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