[Idiom] Idiomatic Expression

[Gilles L]

Dear Teacher
What does the expression: "to wipe hand" mean.
There was an article on the newspaper which read as follows:

Former President Bush appears to wipe hand on Bill Clinton during visit to Haiti

Can you please tell me what this means ?
Many thanks

 

[Barb_D]

This made the headlines??

If you wipe something, you rub it with something to either dry it or remove something you don't want on your hand.

I wiped my hands on the towel.
He wiped his feet on the mat before coming to so he wouldn't track in dirt.

You may even wipe your muddy hands on your jeans to try to get some of the mud off.

If you wipe your hand on someone else, that's kind of gross.

Apparently, it looked like Bush wiped his hand on Clinton.

In headlines, we often remove articles and supporting verbs.