Hansel \Han"sel\ (h[a^]n"s[e^]l), n. & v. See {Handsel}.
Handsel \Hand"sel\ (h[a^]nd"s[e^]l), n. [Written also {hansel}.] [OE. handsal, hansal, hansel, AS. handselena giving into hands, or more prob. fr. Icel. handsal; hand hand + sal sale, bargain; akin to AS. sellan to give, deliver. See {Sell}, {Sale}. ] 1. A sale, gift, or delivery into the hand of another; especially, a sale, gift, delivery, or using which is the first of a series, and regarded as an omen for the rest; a first installment; an earnest; as the first money received for the sale of goods in the morning, the first money taken at a shop newly opened, the first present sent to a young woman on her wedding day, etc.
Their first good handsel of breath in this world. --Fuller.
Our present tears here, not our present laughter, Are but the handsels of our joys hereafter. --Herrick.
2. Price; payment. [Obs.] --Spenser.
{Handsel Monday}, the first Monday of the new year, when handsels or presents are given to servants, children, etc.
But she got her first glimpse of White House Executive Chef Hans Raffert's gingerbread house, dressed up as the witch's cottage from Hansel and Gretel.
She said the Great Wall was "awesome." Hansel, who sells processing equipment in China, helped work out the trip after the band was one of eight to play in the 1986 New Year's Day Parade of Roses in Pasadena, Calif.
It aired the first complete opera on TV in 1943 with a performance of "Hansel and Gretel." Ernie Tetrault, anchorman of WRGB's evening news, became the station's first full-time staff announcer in 1951.
"He just didn't have the punch today," said Jerry Bailey, Hansel's jockey.