From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English(at) second/third/fourth hand(at) second/third/fourth handif you know something second, third etc hand, someone tells you about it, but you have no personal experience of it Until now, information has been second or third hand, but this news comes from someone who was there. → hand
Examples from the Corpus
(at) second/third/fourth hand• The leader takes a watch with a second hand, points to a player and calls out a letter of the alphabet.• A computer virus A watch with a second hand doing double time.• Other rates may apply where the development is acquired second hand, or is merely a refurbishment of an existing industrial building.• The story is now taken up at second hand.• There is even a chapter on buying second hand - which has to be a boon for other Leica devotees.• Deathtraps: Coroner's warning over second hand electrical goods.• The Fourth Hand glides to a soft landing in Wisconsin, and readers will be left smiling.• The second hand had its own dial at the bottom of the face. 