ходить по рукам

I

• ХОДИТЬ/ПОЙТИ ПО РУКАМ

[VP; subj: concr, often a noun denoting a written or printed work; more often impfv; fixed WO]

=====

⇒ to be passed from one person to another:

- X ходил по рукам{{}}≈ X was passed from hand to hand;

- X was passed (handed) around;

- X was going (making) the rounds;

- X (was) circulated.

     ♦ Тогда же я прочла "Разговоры со Сталиным" Милована Джиласа. Австралийское издание этой книги... кто-то привёз в Москву, и она ходила по рукам (Аллилуева 2). It was at this time that I read Milovan Djilas' Conversations with Stalin. Someone had brought to Moscow the Australian version of this book, and it was passed from hand to hand (2a).

     ♦ Ходили по рукам полемические сочинения, в которых объяснялось, что горчица есть былие [= былье], выросшее из тела девки-блудницы... (Салтыков-Щедрин 1). Polemical compositions were handed around, explaining that mustard was a green which grew from the body of a fornicatress.. (1a).

     ♦ [Твардовский] боялся другого, он еще с лета угрожающе выпытывал, не ходит ли роман по рукам? (Солженицын 2). [Tvardovsky's] fears were quite different. That summer he had begun asking menacingly whether the novel was going the rounds (2a).

     ♦ Роман "Доктор Живаго" в рукописи несколько лет ходил в Москве по рукам, официально обсуждался в наших редакциях... (Гладков 1). The novel [Doctor Zhivago] had been circulating in Moscow in manuscript copies for several years, it had been officially under consideration by Soviet publishers., (1a)

II

• ХОДИТЬ/ПОЙТИ ПО РУКАМ coll

[VP; subj: human, female; usu. pfv]

=====

⇒ to have sexual relations with one man after another:

- X пошла по рукам{{}}≈ X began (has been) sleeping around;

- X went (has been going) from one man to another;

- [in limited contexts] X began (has been) living off men.

     ♦ "Мать, говорит, воровка, по магазинам промышляет, а она сама с пятнадцати по рукам пошла, но разденется, есть на что посмотреть!" (Максимов 1). "She said her mother's a thief, goes around stealing from shops, and that she herself has been living off men since she was fifteen, but when she took her clothes off, she was something to look atr (1a).