one hand washes the other

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

mutual assistance and cooperation are necessary for anyone to achieve their goals; neither party in a relationship can succeed without the active support of the other; the image of the hands washing each other captures the reciprocal nature of all productive cooperation — each hand both gives and receives cleansing service simultaneously; the proverb appears in Latin (Manus manum lavat), in African oral traditions, and in many other cultures, testifying to the universal human understanding that no person achieves significant things entirely alone and that networks of mutual obligation are the basic fabric of social and economic life