change hands
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change hands
To be acquired or bought by another person or group. The company has changed hands several times but is still on the verge of bankruptcy. The famous painting has changed hands only once since it was first sold.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
change hands
[for something] to be sold or passed from owner to owner. (From the "point of view" of the object that is passed on.) How many times has this lot changed hands in the last ten years? We built this house in 1970, and it has never changed hands.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
change hands
Pass from one owner to another. For example, This house seems to change hands every other year, or The contract is valid only when money changes hands. [Second half of 1600s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
change hands
COMMON If something changes hands, one person or organization gets it from another, usually by buying it. A bottle of this wine cost around £2 in 1962. Today, the same bottle would change hands for anything up to four hundred pounds. The property has changed hands several times recently. Note: When something is sold for a particular amount of money, you say that amount of money changes hands. Record sums of money changed hands at Christie's in New York, where a portrait by Vincent Van Gogh has been sold for more than eighty million dollars.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
change hands
1 (of a business or building) pass to a different owner. 2 (of money or a marketable commodity) pass to another person in the course of a business transaction.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
change ˈhands
pass to a different owner: The house has changed hands several times.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
change hands
To pass from one owner to another.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.