Dead hand can refer to:
- Dead Hand (nuclear war), a nuclear deterrent in the Cold War.
- The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy
- Dead Hand, a sub-boss in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
- The Dead Hand, original title of one of the short stories comprising the original Foundation Trilogy
- Dead man's hand poker hand allegedly held by Wild Bill Hickok at the time of his murder.
- Mortmain, a legal term which literally means "dead hand"
Famous quotes containing the words dead hand, dead and/or hand:
“Wild Bill was indulging in his favorite pastime of a friendly game of cards in the old No. 10 saloon. For the second time in his career, he was sitting with his back to an open door. Jack McCall walked in, shot him through the back of the head, and rushed from the place, only to be captured shortly afterward. Wild Bill’s dead hand held aces and eights, and from that time on this has been known in the West as “the dead man’s hand.””
—State of South Dakota, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“We are all dead men on leave.”
—Eugene Leviné, Russian Jew, friend of Rosa Luxemburg’s lover, Jogiches. quoted in Men in Dark Times, “Rosa Luxemburg: 1871-1919,” sct. 3, Hannah Arendt (1968)
“Where souls do couch on flowers, we’ll hand in hand,
And with our sprightly port make the ghosts gaze.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)