upper hand

American  

noun

1. the dominating or controlling position; advantage.

   to have the upper hand in the fight.

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upper hand British  

noun

1. the position of control; advantage (esp in the phrases have or get the upper hand )

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upper hand Idioms  

1. 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.

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Etymology

Origin of upper hand

First recorded in 1475–85

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

upper hand

Businesses now have the upper hand on labor, a reversal of what happened during the post-pandemic recovery.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026

But the Byzantines regained the upper hand after 1001, soundly defeating Samuel's army in 1014.

From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026

"One of the joys of my character was how strong and feisty she is: she had the upper hand over the men, for the most part," she told the Guardian, external in 2018.

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026

In the latest installment of Unhinged, Slate’s dating advice column, Steffi Cao counsels a woman whose dates are uncomfortable with her having the financial upper hand.

From Slate ● Sep. 3, 2026

To regain the upper hand, the English set up a target made of steel.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Related Words

• advantage
• dominance
• leverage
• superiority
• supremacy