upper hand
English
Etymology
Possibly an allusion to card games such as poker in which hands are the sets of cards held by players.
Pronunciation
Audio (AU): (file)
Noun
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, Christine Gorman, "Playing Chicken With Our Antibiotics," Time, 14 Feb.:
- 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.
- 1855, Washington Irving, "Guests from Gibbet Island":
Translations
(idiomatic) advantage
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