Meaning of upper hand | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Advantage or control.
   idiomatic, uncountable, usually
2. The place of honour accorded to a social superior when walking together; the right of way in walking
   obsolete, uncountable, usually

Equivalents

Examples

“There was no refusing him, for he had got the complete upper hand of the community, and the peaceful burghers all stood in awe of him.”

“[C]uriosity began to get the upper hand, and I determined I should have one look through the cabin window.”

“There it was Razumov who had the upper hand, in a composed sense of his own superiority.”

“And because they live everywhere and reproduce quickly, bacteria have the upper hand.”

“"We've now protected the line from similar-sized flooding-events and bigger ones," he says. That's quite some claim for a line where floods have often had the upper hand in the past 16 years, causing track bed and embankments to be rebuilt.”

CEFR level