under one's thumb

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Prepositional phrase

under one's thumb

1. (idiomatic) Completely controlled by someone; at someone's command.

   She has the entire crew under her thumb. They would do anything for her.

   • 1912, Willa Cather, The Bohemian Girl::

     ...when you find a man under his wife's thumb you can always be sure there's a soft spot in him somewhere.

Translations

under one's thumb

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 怕老婆的 (pàlǎopó-de)

• Danish: i sin hule hånd
• Finnish: tossun alla, tossutettu
• German: unter dem Pantoffel
• Hungarian: az uralma alatt
• Italian: essere succube (di qualcuno)
• Japanese: 女房天下 (にょうぼうてんか, nyōbō-tenka), 二本棒 (にほんぼう, nihonbō), 鼻下長 (びかちょう, bikachō)
• Polish: pod pantoflem, pod batem
• Russian: под башмако́м (pod bašmakóm), под каблуко́м (ru) (pod kablukóm), подкаблу́чник (ru) (podkablúčnik)
• Scottish Gaelic: fo mhaide na poite
• Serbo-Croatian: у шаци, u šaci
• Spanish: macabeo (es) m
• Welsh: dan wab (literally “under slap”)

See also

• henpecked
• over a barrel
• to wear the pants
• to wrap around one's little finger