hands are tied, my/one's
(redirected from my/one's hands are tied)someone's hands are tied
Fig. someone is not able to help or intervene. (See also .) I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do. My hands are tied.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
hands are tied, my/one's
Not free to act. This metaphor became common after the mid-seventeenth century. An early appearance in print was in clergyman Thomas Fuller’s The Holy State and the Profane State (1642): “When God intends a Nation shall be beaten, He ties their hands behind them.”
See also: hand
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer