upper hand
noun
the dominating or controlling position; advantage: to have the upper hand in the fight.
Origin of upper hand
First recorded in 1475–85
Words nearby upper hand
Example sentences from the Web for upper hand
British Dictionary definitions for upper hand
upper hand
noun
the upper hand
the position of control; advantage (esp in the phrases have or get the upper hand)
Idioms and Phrases with upper hand
upper hand
Also, whip hand. A dominating or controlling position, as in Once you let Jeff get the upper hand there'll be no stopping him, or When it comes to checkers, my son-in-law generally has the whip hand. The first term alludes to an ancient game in which each player in turn grasps a stick with one hand, beginning from the bottom, and the last who can put his hand at the top wins. Its figurative use dates from the late 1400s. The variant alludes to the driver who holds the whip in a horse-drawn vehicle; it was being used figuratively by the late 1600s.