Definition of Handkerchief

Hand

HANDKERCHIEF noun

	A small square of silk or linen, used in various ignoble offices about the face and especially serviceable at funerals to conceal the lack of tears. The handkerchief is of recent invention; our ancestors knew nothing of it and intrusted its duties to the sleeve. Shakespeare's introducing it into the play of 'Othello' is an anachronism: Desdemona dried her nose with her skirt, as Dr. Mary Walker and other reformers have done with their coattails in our own day -- an evidence that revolutions sometimes go backward.

		definition from: *The Devil's Dictionary* by Ambrose Bierce, 1911

Hangman

Regular definition:

HANDKERCHIEF:
?hæ?k?t??f n. (pl. handkerchiefs or -chieves) a square of cotton, linen, silk, etc., usu. carried in the pocket for wiping one's nose, etc.

Last updated: 9/3/2011 12:48:30