hand wringing

• handwringing, hand-wringing

hand wringing (countable and uncountable, plural hand wringings)

1. The repeated clasping or squeezing of the hands as a symptom of distress.
   • 1862, Anna Maria Hall, chapter XIII, in Can Wrong Be Right?:

     Whisperings filled the corridors with unearthly sounds — the hand-wringing and breast-beating of the elder sisters — the sighs and sobs of the younger.

2. (figuratively) A feigned exhibition of distress, usually with implied inaction or vacillating in the face of a dilemma or crisis.
   • 2001, Thomas W. Smith, Revaluing Ethics: Aristotle's Dialectical Pedagogy, page 1:

     On the one hand, there is the danger of ineffectual and often counterproductive conservative handwringing over the crisis.

   • 2003, Daniel K. Akaka, Fema's Role in Managing Bioterrorist Attacks and The Impact of Public Health Concerns on Bioterrorism Preparedness, page 69:

     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.

   • 2023 May 4, Frank Bruni, “Republicans Are Running Wild in My State”, in The New York Times‎:

     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, […] .”

   • 2023 November 9, Daniel Boffey, quoting Ian Paisley Jr, “Braverman clarifies Northern Ireland comments amid angry criticism”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     The hand-wringing hypocrisy and the pant-wetting that we are seeing over someone criticising the police correctly is amazing.

• handwringingly