go hand in hand

Used in reference to two or more things taken together.

1. To arise or occur in tandem, as owing to some correlative relationship. When you're a parent, you quickly learn that tantrums and bedtime go hand in hand. I'm not surprised to hear that job loss and depression often go hand in hand. It's unfortunate how Christmas festivities and illnesses always seem to go hand in hand.

2. To make each other more complete, balanced, ideal, satisfactory, etc.; to complement one another. You can't have peanut butter without jelly—they just go hand in hand! Our innovative research into cutting-edge technologies goes hand in hand with our efforts to improve the infrastructure of third-world countries. If you'd ever just try pineapple on pizza, you'd see that they really do go hand in hand!

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go hand in hand

COMMON If two things go hand in hand, they are closely connected and cannot be considered separately from each other. The principle of the playgroup movement is that play and learning go hand in hand. Note: You can also say that one thing goes hand in hand with another thing. This symptom goes hand in hand with an overall disintegration of the personality. Compare with work hand in hand.

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Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

go hand in hand

be closely associated (with each other).

See also: go, hand

go hand in ˈhand (with something)

be closely connected (with something): Poverty tends to go hand in hand with disease, and raising people’s incomes usually helps to improve their health. ♢ A bad economic situation and rising crime usually go hand in hand.

See also: go, hand

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