Learn English – What does “brought up by hand” mean

dickensliterary-englishmeaning

In the book Great Expectations, Pip narrates:

My sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, was more than twenty years older than I,
and had established a great reputation with herself and the neighbours
because she had brought me up ‘by hand.’

What does this term mean? Is it an idiom?

Best Answer

This web site says that "brought up by hand" means that he was bottle- or spoon-fed rather than nursed by his mother or by a wet-nurse.

By hand, brought up: Infants, in the absence of the mother, were either sent out to be fed by a wet-nurse (another lactating woman), or were spoon- or bottle-fed. Mrs. Joe's claim to neighborhood fame -- that she raised Pip "by hand" -- refers to the latter method.

This gave Mrs. Joe Gargery a "great reputation" because at the time, infant mortality was much larger among babies "brought up by hand". One can find usage of this original meaning of "brought up by hand", as well as discussion of the high resulting infant mortality, in Google books (the linked book is from 1846, a little more than a decade before Dickens wrote Great Expectations).

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