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手当たり次第 (teatarishidai) Japanese meaning | Kotomora
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読よ
ん
だ
。
He read any book he could get his hands on.
In the fire, people grabbed whatever they could and fled.
She applied for jobs indiscriminately.
Usage patterns 手て 当あ たり 次し 第だい に 〈 動どう 詞し 〉 to do something with whatever happens to be at hand, without choosing
He got angry and threw whatever was within reach at the wall.
〈 物もの 〉 を 手て 当あ たり 次し 第だい に 集あつ める to gather things indiscriminately, taking whatever comes to hand
手て 当あ たり 次し 第だい に 本ほん を 読よ む to read books indiscriminately, whatever one happens to pick up
Related words 片っ端から means going through everything one by one without skipping any, whereas 手当たり次第 means grabbing or acting on whatever happens to be closest, with no order at all.
無闇に describes acting recklessly or without proper thought in general, while 手当たり次第 focuses on the specific idea of using or grabbing whatever is at hand.
手当たり次第 describes grabbing or acting on whatever is closest at hand, a more colloquial way to express the 'indiscriminate' idea conveyed by 無差別.
手当たり次第 means doing something to whatever is physically within reach, whereas 闇雲 refers more broadly to acting without mental planning or direction.
Written forms 手て 当あ たり 次し 第だい
Standard kanji spelling; high priority in news and common usage.
手て 当あ たりしだい
Mixed kanji-kana variant; less common but still encountered.
手て 当あた り 次し 第だい
Variant with simplified 当り; acceptable but less frequent.
手て あたりしだい
Kana-mixed form; used when avoiding complex kanji or for readability.
手て あたり 次し 第だい
Another mixed form; seen in informal writing.
Etymology Compound of 手当たり (feel, touch) and 次第 (order, as soon as). Literally 'in the order of what one's hand touches', it evolved to mean using anything one can lay hands on, haphazardly.
Before moving, I stuffed whatever was in the house into boxes without sorting.
During exam prep, I read whatever books I could get my hands on at the library.
だい
Rare variant; not commonly used.
