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

"I don't believe that hardliners currently have the upper hand in Iran," said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House.

From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026

With Rhaenyra’s dragons on their side, the Velaryon armada should have the upper hand.

From Salon ● Jun. 21, 2026

“Iran’s decisions show they believe they have the upper hand, with Trump deterred from renewing the fighting,” said Ofer Guterman, a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026

"Russia will very likely eventually develop countermeasures so Ukraine's international partners have a rare and temporary opportunity to exploit favourable battlefield dynamics while Ukraine has the upper hand."

From BBC ● May 30, 2026

Lamphere guessed that the information inside his boss's safe held the key to something big, something that might finally give him the upper hand in his years-long hunt for Soviet spies in America.

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau

Related Words

• advantage
• dominance
• leverage
• superiority
• supremacy