force someone's hand

English

Etymology

A metaphorical reference to card games.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

force someone's hand (third-person singular simple present forces someone's hand, present participle forcing someone's hand, simple past and past participle forced someone's hand)

1. (idiomatic) Bring about a situation which necessitates an agent to act, often causing a plan to be executed prematurely.

Translations

to bring about a situation

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 逼上梁山 (zh) (bīshàngliángshān)

• Finnish: pakottaa toimimaan
• French: forcer la main (fr)
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: forzare la mano
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Serbo-Croatian: iznuditi (sh)
• Spanish: forzar la mano

See also

• preclude