Korean Idioms using "hand/손" | Body Part Idioms

안년하세요 리더님! It's Koreanstudyjunkie here. In this post, I have found some really useful Korean idioms that use the word "손” or "hand".

Actually, many idioms in Korean use body parts like foot, eye, nose, mouth, etc. I'm planning to do a series of them, so if you're interested stay tuned ;)

I have a book of 300+ Korean Idioms, Phrases, Sayings, and Proverbs if you want to continue learning more things like this!

Book Description:

This book Is a PDF - 77 pages in total. There are

around 178 Korean Phrases for different themes such as school, weather, moods, outings, medical, emergency, insults, compliments, and etc. Some of the phrases list

include a list of vocabulary next to them - over 100 words.

Learn More About It Here

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손이 크다

Literal: "Hand is big"

Meaning: Very generous (with money, food, etc.)

Example:우리 엄마는 손이 커서 음식을 항상 많이 해.("My mom is generous, so she always cooks a lot.")

손을 놓다

Literal: "Let go of the hand"

Meaning: To stop doing something / give up

Example:스트레스 때문에 결국 일을 손에 놓았어.

("I gave up on the work because of stress.")

손을 대다

Literal: "Touch with hand"

Meaning: To start doing something / lay a hand on it

Example:요즘 새 프로젝트에 손을 대기 시작했어.

("I recently started working on a new project.")

손이 모자라다

Literal: "Not enough hands"

Meaning: Need more people/help

Example:행사 준비에 손이 모자라.

("We don't have enough hands for the event prep.")

손을 씻다

Literal: "Wash one's hands"

Meaning: To quit bad behavior (like retiring from crime, shady work)

Example:그는 범죄에서 손을 씻었다고 했다.

("He said he quit his criminal activities.")

손발이 맞다

Literal: "Hands and feet match"

Meaning: Good teamwork / working in sync

Example:우리 팀은 손발이 잘 맞아.

("Our team works really well together.")

손을 보다

Literal: "See the hand"

Meaning: Fix or deal with something (sometimes harshly)

Example:고장난 기계를 손을 좀 봐야겠어.

( "I need to fix the broken machine.")

손에 익다

Literal: "Familiar in the hand"

Meaning: Become skilled through practice

Example:이 일도 손에 익으면 쉬워.

(This work gets easy once you get used to it.")

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That's all for this post! If you enjoyed it, leave a like or a comment. Below, I have linked 3 other related posts I think you might like - check them out!