To fly off the handle. See Fly, to which add the following earlier quot.
1825. Neal, Brother Jonathan, bk. I., ch. iv. Most off the handle, some o’ the tribe, I guess.
Hand-me-downs (or Hand-’em-downs), subs. (common).—Second-hand clothes. Hand-me-down-shop, or Never-too-late-to-mend-shop = a repairing tailors’. Fr., un decrochez-moi-ça.
1878. Notes and Queries, 5, s. ix., 6 Apr., p. 263. Hand-’em-down—A second-hand garment (Northamptonshire).
1888. New York World, 5 Mar. Russell Sage, it is said, walked into a Broadway clothing store the other day and tried on and purchased a twelve-dollar suit of hand-me-downs.
1889. Sporting Times, 29 June. Trousers which fit him nowhere in particular, and which all over proclaim themselves entitled to the epithet of hand-me-downs.
English Synonyms.—Reach-me-downs; translations; wall-flowers.
French Synonyms.—La musique (popular); la mise-bas (servants’: especially ‘perks’).
Hand-out, subs. (American).—Food to a tramp at the door.
1887. Morley Roberts, The Western Avernus. Some of the boys said it was a regular hand-out, and that we looked like a crowd of old bummers.