hand down

1. 1.

   passed on, as by inheritance

   “This ring was handed down through many generations”

   Broaderpass on

Questions about hand down

What does hand down mean?

hand down means "passed on, as by inheritance".

Is hand down a common word?

hand down is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.