English

Adjective

pink-handed ‎(comparative more pink-handed, superlative most pink-handed)

1. Having hands that are pink.
   • 1913, F. St. Mars, The Prowlers, page 102:

     Squat and gnome-like it looked, silhouetted against the dying fire in the western sky; an odd, elfin-eared, pink-handed, hunchbacked manikin with a tail.

   • 1963, Catherine Gaskin, ‎Richard Bach, ‎Ernest Kellogg Gann, Reader's digest condensed books: volume 4:

     He was pink-cheeked, pink-handed and pink-nosed, all of which combined with his delft-blue eyes to make him look like a mature kewpie.

   • 2014, R. V. Cassill, Doctor Cobb's Game: A Novel, ISBN 1497685141:

     Pink-faced and pink-handed, Peter leaned over his wife's legs. He reached both hands to her waist and pulled away the lilac-colored garment.

2. White-collar; working at a desk job as opposed to manual labor.
   • 1973, Ralph Hurne, The Yellow Jersey, ISBN 1558214526, page 202:

     I know the pink-handed types who get jobs like this interviewer's got, and I know what he's trying to do to me.

   • 1994, Robert Murray Davis, Playing Cowboys: Low Culture and High Art in the Western, ISBN 0806126272, page 100:

     The Western conceit is important because it allows Hernhuter to contrast the flat and tame backyard to the precipitous canyon and the colorful dialect of Nest with the bland generalizations of the pink-handed psychiatrist.

   • 2011, Keith Heyer Meldahl, Rough-Hewn Land: A Geologic Journey from California to the Rocky Mountains, ISBN 0520949943, page 32:

     Lode mine investors were often distant financiers: soft, pink-handed men who earned their livings with pens, not hammers.

Adverb

pink-handed ‎(comparative more pink-handed, superlative most pink-handed)

1. With clear evidence of guilt, red-handed.
   • 2000 December 25, Ed Foster, “Stats show backbone provider UUNet seems to be biggest spam haven”, in InfoWorld, volume 22, page 51:

     Several major ISPs have been caught red-handed (or perhaps pink-handed) making agreements with known spammers.

   • 2011, Keith Mansfield, Battle for Earth: Johnny Mackintosh 2, ISBN 1742629938:

     'Hence you closed it as soon as I entered and are exhibiting facial capillary dilation and blush response, consistent with what I suspect matches the human phrase “caught red- or rather pink-handed”.'

   • 2011, David Clewell, Taken Somehow By Surprise, ISBN 0299251136, page 18:

     My friend insists her purple house is where she caught a poacher in her yard, pink-handed, in floodlights she installed after she learned new birds of Featherstone would flock no more.

   • 2015, Lance Rubin, Denton Little's Deathdate, ISBN 147112424X:

     I remember that image so clearly, how my first thought was that it looked like a tiny above ground pool and a small squadron of pink men lying on their backs, tanning. “I was caught red-handed. Well . . . pink-handed.

Usage notes

• When used as a synonym for red-handed, this term is almost always used with the verb to catch, and is typically used for more minor offenses, those that are mostly embarrassing to the offender rather than being heinous crimes.