A garment or other item that has been passed on from another person.
‘they received hand-me-downs and toys from relatives and friends’
‘hand-me-down furniture’
‘One boy is tanned and shiny from the water, but most of the rest have gangly, pale, mottled bodies; they are wearing baggy underwear or ill-fitting hand-me-downs.’
‘I had a couple more shirts now - hand-me-downs from Ray and Johnny - but I still had the same four pairs of basketball shorts.’
‘While the others were given new clothes and shoes, she was dressed in ill-fitting hand-me-downs and old shoes.’
‘I already have all his hand-me-downs like his shirts and TV tray, so I might as well use his battle gear.’
‘Everything you own is second-hand or hand-me-downs, or given to you as a gift over the recent holidays and will become a recycle to your younger brother once you grow out of it.’
‘Buying second-hand goods and accepting hand-me-downs work for me, too!’
‘The jeans you're wearing are hand-me-downs, they stopped making that style six and a half years ago, telling me that you either have an older sibling or some other close relative who's older than you.’
‘I didn't know at the time that my used textbooks were castoffs and that our science and athletic equipment represented the hand-me-downs from white schools in the district.’
‘Her lashing tail was half-spotted, half-striped; her clothes overly big and just a little worn and patchy, like hand-me-downs.’
‘Like all of his other clothes, these were hand-me-downs.’
‘On this limited budget we opted for hand-me-downs and cloth diapers.’
‘Barbara tended to wear her elder sister's hand-me-downs, the skirts turned inside out to get the best use out of them.’
‘Juniors like that won't tolerate hand-me-downs or patched knees; they want everything shiny, new, and up-to-date, and they tend to get it without so much as a thank you.’
‘What clothing wasn't handmade was usually hand-me-downs.’
‘The dinghies on our lake were serviceable, not showy: hand-me-downs with dented motors and countless coats of varnish.’
‘The day of the hand-me-downs among family and friends is truly gone with parents opting to buy new baby equipment.’
‘At the same time, family and friends with babies, social service agencies, non-profit groups, and support groups can be good sources of hand-me-downs, and can help you meet the needs of your babies.’
‘His mother was a domestic in Miami Beach, and along with hand-me-downs from the wealthy families she worked for, she brought home tales of the spiritual impoverishment that accompanied their plenty.’
‘We don't even have that many hand-me-downs, as we gave most of them away because we didn't expect another baby.’
‘With no money coming in (Andrew likely never received the army pension he was due), the girls wore hand-me-downs from their Milford Haven cousins and Philip grew up learning the value of economizing.’