"hand wringing" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "hand wringings",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "hand wringing (countable and uncountable, plural hand wringings)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "50 50",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1862, Anna Maria Hall, chapter XIII, in Can Wrong Be Right?",
          "text": "Whisperings filled the corridors with unearthly sounds — the hand-wringing and breast-beating of the elder sisters — the sighs and sobs of the younger.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The repeated clasping or squeezing of the hands as a symptom of distress."
      ],
      "id": "en-hand_wringing-en-noun--DD2julJ",
      "links": [
        [
          "clasping",
          "clasping"
        ],
        [
          "squeezing",
          "squeezing"
        ],
        [
          "distress",
          "distress"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "69 31",
          "word": "handwringingly"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "59 41",
          "word": "handwringing"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "59 41",
          "word": "hand-wringing"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "50 50",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2001, Thomas W. Smith, Revaluing Ethics: Aristotle's Dialectical Pedagogy, page 1",
          "text": "On the one hand, there is the danger of ineffectual and often counterproductive conservative handwringing over the crisis.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Daniel K. Akaka, Fema's Role in Managing Bioterrorist Attacks and The Impact of Public Health Concerns on Bioterrorism Preparedness, page 69",
          "text": "As noted, the confusion and hand wringing about who should do what mostly flows from a failure to clearly think through what an epidemic is and what will be demanded in response.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 May 4, Frank Bruni, “Republicans Are Running Wild in My State”, in The New York Times",
          "text": "And Andrew Marantz reminisced about Tucker Carlson’s wondrous reign at Fox News: “And who could forget the ‘Tucker Carlson Originals’ special ‘The End of Men,’ […]? That special also featured hand-wringing about ‘soy boys,’ paeans to raw-egg slonkers and homoerotic montages, apparently filmed on Alex Jones’s bocce court, […].”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 November 9, Daniel Boffey, quoting Ian Paisley Jr, “Braverman clarifies Northern Ireland comments amid angry criticism”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
          "text": "The hand-wringing hypocrisy and the pant-wetting that we are seeing over someone criticising the police correctly is amazing.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A feigned exhibition of distress, usually with implied inaction or vacillating in the face of a dilemma or crisis."
      ],
      "id": "en-hand_wringing-en-noun-NN4DP52d",
      "links": [
        [
          "feigned",
          "feigned"
        ],
        [
          "exhibition",
          "exhibition"
        ],
        [
          "inaction",
          "inaction"
        ],
        [
          "vacillating",
          "vacillate"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) A feigned exhibition of distress, usually with implied inaction or vacillating in the face of a dilemma or crisis."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "figuratively",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "hand wringing"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English uncountable nouns"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "hand wringings",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "hand wringing (countable and uncountable, plural hand wringings)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "handwringingly"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1862, Anna Maria Hall, chapter XIII, in Can Wrong Be Right?",
          "text": "Whisperings filled the corridors with unearthly sounds — the hand-wringing and breast-beating of the elder sisters — the sighs and sobs of the younger.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The repeated clasping or squeezing of the hands as a symptom of distress."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "clasping",
          "clasping"
        ],
        [
          "squeezing",
          "squeezing"
        ],
        [
          "distress",
          "distress"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2001, Thomas W. Smith, Revaluing Ethics: Aristotle's Dialectical Pedagogy, page 1",
          "text": "On the one hand, there is the danger of ineffectual and often counterproductive conservative handwringing over the crisis.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Daniel K. Akaka, Fema's Role in Managing Bioterrorist Attacks and The Impact of Public Health Concerns on Bioterrorism Preparedness, page 69",
          "text": "As noted, the confusion and hand wringing about who should do what mostly flows from a failure to clearly think through what an epidemic is and what will be demanded in response.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 May 4, Frank Bruni, “Republicans Are Running Wild in My State”, in The New York Times",
          "text": "And Andrew Marantz reminisced about Tucker Carlson’s wondrous reign at Fox News: “And who could forget the ‘Tucker Carlson Originals’ special ‘The End of Men,’ […]? That special also featured hand-wringing about ‘soy boys,’ paeans to raw-egg slonkers and homoerotic montages, apparently filmed on Alex Jones’s bocce court, […].”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 November 9, Daniel Boffey, quoting Ian Paisley Jr, “Braverman clarifies Northern Ireland comments amid angry criticism”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
          "text": "The hand-wringing hypocrisy and the pant-wetting that we are seeing over someone criticising the police correctly is amazing.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A feigned exhibition of distress, usually with implied inaction or vacillating in the face of a dilemma or crisis."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "feigned",
          "feigned"
        ],
        [
          "exhibition",
          "exhibition"
        ],
        [
          "inaction",
          "inaction"
        ],
        [
          "vacillating",
          "vacillate"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) A feigned exhibition of distress, usually with implied inaction or vacillating in the face of a dilemma or crisis."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "figuratively",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "handwringing"
    },
    {
      "word": "hand-wringing"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hand wringing"
}