"hand waving" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "hand wavings",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "hand waving (plural hand wavings)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "handwavium"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The sales pitch sounded good, but there was a lot of hand waving about the price.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000 August 21, “letter”, in Time",
          "text": "Protesters who demand that this brilliantly humane enterprise be stopped should have their motives questioned. Their protest is nothing but the mindless hand waving of Luddites.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Discussion or argumentation involving approximation, vagueness, educated guessing, or the attempt to explain or excuse vagaries."
      ],
      "id": "en-hand_waving-en-noun-l6-op-Cn",
      "links": [
        [
          "Discussion",
          "discussion"
        ],
        [
          "argumentation",
          "argumentation"
        ],
        [
          "approximation",
          "approximation"
        ],
        [
          "vague",
          "vague"
        ],
        [
          "guess",
          "guess"
        ],
        [
          "explain",
          "explain"
        ],
        [
          "excuse",
          "excuse"
        ],
        [
          "vagaries",
          "vagary"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Discussion or argumentation involving approximation, vagueness, educated guessing, or the attempt to explain or excuse vagaries."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "handwave"
        },
        {
          "word": "handwaving"
        },
        {
          "word": "handwavy"
        },
        {
          "word": "wave of the hand"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "hand-waving"
        },
        {
          "word": "handwaving"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "ar",
          "lang": "Arabic",
          "roman": "talwīḥ bi-l-yad",
          "sense": "argumentation involving approximation",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "تَلْوِيح بِالْيَد"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "argumentation involving approximation",
          "word": "käsienheiluttelu"
        },
        {
          "code": "he",
          "lang": "Hebrew",
          "sense": "argumentation involving approximation",
          "word": "נפנופי־ידיים"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-hand waving.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/3e/En-au-hand_waving.ogg/En-au-hand_waving.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/En-au-hand_waving.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hand waving"
}

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "handwavium"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "hand wavings",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "hand waving (plural hand wavings)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "handwave"
    },
    {
      "word": "handwaving"
    },
    {
      "word": "handwavy"
    },
    {
      "word": "wave of the hand"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The sales pitch sounded good, but there was a lot of hand waving about the price.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000 August 21, “letter”, in Time",
          "text": "Protesters who demand that this brilliantly humane enterprise be stopped should have their motives questioned. Their protest is nothing but the mindless hand waving of Luddites.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Discussion or argumentation involving approximation, vagueness, educated guessing, or the attempt to explain or excuse vagaries."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Discussion",
          "discussion"
        ],
        [
          "argumentation",
          "argumentation"
        ],
        [
          "approximation",
          "approximation"
        ],
        [
          "vague",
          "vague"
        ],
        [
          "guess",
          "guess"
        ],
        [
          "explain",
          "explain"
        ],
        [
          "excuse",
          "excuse"
        ],
        [
          "vagaries",
          "vagary"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Discussion or argumentation involving approximation, vagueness, educated guessing, or the attempt to explain or excuse vagaries."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-hand waving.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/3e/En-au-hand_waving.ogg/En-au-hand_waving.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/En-au-hand_waving.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "hand-waving"
    },
    {
      "word": "handwaving"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ar",
      "lang": "Arabic",
      "roman": "talwīḥ bi-l-yad",
      "sense": "argumentation involving approximation",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "تَلْوِيح بِالْيَد"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "argumentation involving approximation",
      "word": "käsienheiluttelu"
    },
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "sense": "argumentation involving approximation",
      "word": "נפנופי־ידיים"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hand waving"
}