upper hand
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English over hond, from Old English ofer- + hand (superior control; superior position). Not, as supposed, from a card game or counting-out game.
Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
[edit]the upper hand (usually uncountable, plural upper hands)
- (idiomatic) Advantage or control.
- 1855, Washington Irving, Guests from Gibbet Island:
- There was no refusing him, for he had got the complete upper hand of the community, and the peaceful burghers all stood in awe of him.
- 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 23, in Treasure Island:
- [C]uriosity began to get the upper hand, and I determined I should have one look through the cabin window.
- 1911, Joseph Conrad, chapter 1, in Under Western Eyes:
- There it was Razumov who had the upper hand, in a composed sense of his own superiority.
- 2003 February 14, Christine Gorman, “Playing Chicken With Our Antibiotics”, in Time:
- And because they live everywhere and reproduce quickly, bacteria have the upper hand.
- 2020 August 26, Andrew Mourant, “Reinforced against future flooding”, in Rail, page 61:
- "We've now protected the line from similar-sized flooding-events and bigger ones," he says. That's quite some claim for a line where floods have often had the upper hand in the past 16 years, causing track bed and embankments to be rebuilt.
- (obsolete) The place of honour accorded to a social superior when walking together; the right of way in walking
Translations
[edit](idiomatic) advantage
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