right-hand man

American  

noun

1. an indispensable or invaluable assistant; right hand.

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right-hand man Idioms  

1. Also, right-hand woman. A trusted helper, as in Give it to Jill, she's my right-hand man. Based on the idea that in most people the right hand is the stronger of the two, this idiom today usually disregards gender, as in the example. However, in the the 17th and 18th centuries it also meant a soldier in a post of command on the right side of a cavalry unit, and then always denoted a man. [c. 1800]

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Etymology

Origin of right-hand man

First recorded in 1655–65

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

right-hand man

Both James Orr, the party's head of policy; and Dan Jukes, Farage's right-hand man, will be missed profoundly by those inside the party.

From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026

Sanchez's former right-hand man, former transport minister Jose Luis Abalos, is awaiting a verdict in his own corruption trail which wrapped up earlier this month.

From Barron's ● May 19, 2026

President Volodymyr Zelensky's former right-hand man Andriy Yermak appeared in a Kyiv court on Tuesday, after he was named by Ukraine's two anti-corruption agencies as a suspect in a money-laundering scheme.

From BBC ● May 12, 2026

A 10-page dossier on Mr. Lynch—the American ICC official who was Mr. Khan’s right-hand man until he reported the assault allegation—was shared among researchers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026

That confidence paid dividends when the board turned its attention to Robert Serber, who had been Oppenheimer’s right-hand man in theoretical physics at Los Alamos.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

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