Idiom
upper hand
Meaning
Advantage or control.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“She has the upper hand in the game now.”
“Because he prepared for the meeting so well, he had the upper hand during the negotiation.”
“The experienced diplomat gained the upper hand by anticipating the opposition's arguments and addressing them before they were even raised.”
Examples
simple
“She has the upper hand in the game now.”
contextual
“Because he prepared for the meeting so well, he had the upper hand during the negotiation.”
complex
“The experienced diplomat gained the upper hand by anticipating the opposition's arguments and addressing them before they were even raised.”
Origin
From Middle English *over hond*, descending from the Old English *ofer-* and *hand*. While popular etymology frequently suggests an origin in card games or the hand-over-hand method of a counting-out game, the term is rooted in a more literal sense of superior control or a physically superior position.
Key words
Related idioms
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