have the upper hand

have the upper hand

if someone has the upper hand, they have a position of power and control over someone else, and if an emotion has the upper hand, it controls what you do. At half time, the Italian team seem to have the upper hand.

See also: hand, upper

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have the upper hand

to have power and control over someone or a situation. By half time, the Italian soccer team seemed to have the upper hand.

Usage notes: also used with get and gain: There is always worry over who will get the upper hand in the oil markets. Fire fighters from more than six states finally gained the upper hand on the forest fire. PH notes that "upper hand" is entered as CM in MW (as also in WNW), but "the upper hand" collocates so strongly with just 3 verbs--get, have, & gain--with about 70% of the corpus hits, that I think this constitutes a legitimate idiom & will enter it under "upper hand," w/xref at hand; "have" is most common w/over 50%--SL, 2/03

See also: hand, upper