in someone's wheelhouse

English

Etymology

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Wikipedia states "Wheelhouses are the small enclosed parts of a bridge which historically held the ship's steering wheel." So "in someone's wheelhouse" refers to something being within one's areas of competency, like command of a ship is within a ship captain's abilities.

Prepositional phrase

in someone's wheelhouse

1. (US, idiomatic) Matching a person's interests or abilities well.
   • 1999, Carl Deuker, Painting the Black, page 4:

     Griffey took the first pitch low, then he got one in his wheelhouse and blasted it.

   • 2004 May 21, Adam Sternbergh, “Boy, Interrupted”, in New York Magazine:

     His new role, as Peter Pan author JM Barrie in Finding Neverland, is right in his wheelhouse: No other actor seems better equipped to play a man fixated on, and trapped by, perennial youth.

   • 2008, John L. Hilley, The Challenge of Legislation: Bipartisanship in a Partisan World:

     But the subject matter was right in his wheelhouse — politics and all the moving parts.

Synonyms

• up someone's alley