Hand wave = magical

When I was a kid, we'd wave our hands in a mysterious way and say abra kadabra and then poof, we'd achieve magical results. Well, we'd pretend but a hand wave means some kind of mysterious magical action that gives results not attainable by normal human means.
When you stayed up all night programming to get something difficult completed and someone asks, "How in the world did you do that?" To be falsely modest, you reply, "Oh I just did the old hand wave and poof, it appeared."
by Paw Possum May 12, 2016
Get the hand wave mug.
Also written handwaving. In formal conversation / speech omitting important details about the subject matter either because 1) the audience is perceived to be ignorant 2) the speaker themselves is not well-informed on the subject matter or 3) a little from column A and a little from column B.
The math professor only gave a partial description of the proof as she used hand waving to get through the most difficult part and told the students to study the remained of the proof at home.
by demongolemz October 21, 2011
Get the hand waving mug.
Attempting to get past a moment when a difficult explanation is required.
His project was late and all he could offer was some hand waving.
by Laelia October 24, 2003
Get the hand waving mug.
1. Navy slang for semaphore

2. The crude pidgin language adopted by vastly intelligent scienticians when trying to explain complex ideas and theorems to a normal person with only average intelligence or less.
The radio was broken, so the crew of HMS Ipswich had to rely on Hand Waving.

With a lot of Hand Waving, professor Auld was able to explain to Helen the importance of 2+ 3+ alternate magnetic coupling in an antiferromagnetic arrangement.
by TheIan October 23, 2003
Get the hand waving mug.
the motion of moving the hand back and forth. Used as a nonverbal sign of greeting or farewell between two people
I waved my hand at fred.
by Anonymous October 15, 2003
Get the hand waving mug.
in the final episode of season 3 in Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory, Drama Pfaff did the double hand wave as the bikini models were walking out of the building. Rob accuses Drama of acting like a perv as he did the double hand wave.
rob: Google it. DOUBLE HAND WAVE PERV CURVE

Drama: i had no idea you could hate so much on a hand wave.

Rob: dude, its a known thing
by Young&RecklessLOVE October 5, 2010
Get the double hand wave mug.