handyman meaning (informal): definition, etymology and quotations

handyman

noun

/ˈhændimæn/

Etymology From handy + -man.

Informal A person who does small tasks and odd jobs, especially building repairs and the like.

I complained that the heat was not working, and the landlord sent the handyman to fix it.
There was one thing she wanted; she said to hubby dear, / "The time would pass more quickly if I had a rocking chair." / [...] As Strings is such a handyman, by night the job was done / He took that thing upstairs and said, "Now try this out for fun."1983, Stan Rogers, “Strings and Dory Plug”, in For the Family:

verb

Etymology From handy + -man.

Informal To work as a handyman; to do odd jobs.

Instead I walk, uncertainly across the concrete backyard my father and his friends handymanned into existence so proudly, so that none of us would ever have to play in dirt, in muck, in mud again.2014, Peter Wells, Boy Overboard:
My daddy worked too hard at Buck's Sporting Goods by day plus handymanning in the evenings, and my mother spent too many hours fixing trays at the meat-and-three for me to act like we had neither pot nor window. Let the record show that we had both.2018, Tayari Jones, An American Marriage, page 5:

1 more example

They handymanned all week. And every night Grandad would come in with rosy cheeks and a huge appetite and compliment my mom on what a great cook she was.2020, Wendelin Van Draanen, Flipped: