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Upper hand   /ˈəpər hænd/   Listen
adjective
Upper  adj. compar.  (compar. of Up) Being further up, literally or figuratively; higher in place, position, rank, dignity, or the like; superior; as, the upper lip; the upper side of a thing; the upper house of a legislature.
The upper hand, the superiority; the advantage. See To have the upper hand, under Hand.
Upper Bench (Eng. Hist.), the name of the highest court of common law (formerly King's Bench) during the Commonwealth.
Upper case, the top one of a pair of compositor's cases. See the Note under 1st Case, n., 3.
Upper covert (Zool.), one of the coverts situated above the bases of the tail quills.
Upper deck (Naut.), the topmost deck of any vessel; the spar deck.
Upper leather, the leather for the vamps and quarters of shoes.
Upper strake (Naut.), the strake next to the deck, usually of hard wood, and heavier than the other strakes.
Upper ten thousand, or (abbreviated) Upper ten, the ten thousand, more or less, who are highest in position or wealth; the upper class; the aristocracy. (Colloq.)
Upper topsail (Naut.), the upper half of a double topsail.
Upper works (Naut.), all those parts of the hull of a vessel that are properly above water.
Upper world.
(a)
The atmosphere.
(b)
Heaven.
(c)
This world; the earth; in distinction from the underworld.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Upper hand" Quotes from Famous Books



... idle, he reflected within himself afterwards, as he was riding home: he felt that he was possessed of sufficient energy and talent to make himself perfectly master of a pack of cards, to be a proficient over a billiard-table, and even to get the upper hand of a box of dice. With such pursuits left to him, he might yet live to be talked of, feared, and wealthy; and Barry's utmost ambition would have ...
— The Kellys and the O'Kellys • Anthony Trollope

... fond of Lynde, too—though you mayn't believe it. I'm fond of her for her mother's sake and I'd like to see her happy. I didn't want to give her to Harmon that time three years ago but I couldn't help myself. He had the upper hand, curse him. It wasn't for my own sake, though—it was for my wife's. However, that's all over and done with and I'll do the best I can to atone for it. So you won't marry your minister because your father was not a good man, Lynde? Well, I don't suppose ...
— Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1907 to 1908 • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... of rebellion, for the moment, obtained the upper hand. She had youth; Fortune had bestowed a face and figure upon her that she need not be ashamed of, and a healthy capacity for enjoyment. Then why should she abandon all these gifts because of a fate for which she ...
— The Golden Woman - A Story of the Montana Hills • Ridgwell Cullum

... justice, consistency, right. They were too hard to think of, so he abandoned the puzzle of fitting them to men's acts and their consciences, and he put them aside as mere titles employed for the uses of a police and a tribunal to lend an appearance of legitimacy to the decrees of them that have got the upper hand. An insurrectionary rising of his breast on behalf of his country was the consequence. He kept it down by turning the whole hubbub within him to the practical contemplation of a visionary South America as the region for him and a fighting tenantry. With ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... me that very day, and went to the house of a relation, M. Chastelas. I was so greatly offended with this fresh indignity, after so many of the kind formerly received, that I could not help yielding to resentment; and my grief and concern getting the upper hand of my prudence, I exhibited a great coolness and indifference towards my husband. Le Guast and Madame de Sauves were successful in creating a like indifference on his part, which, coinciding with mine, separated us altogether, and we neither spoke to each other ...
— Memoirs And Historical Chronicles Of The Courts Of Europe - Marguerite de Valois, Madame de Pompadour, and Catherine de Medici • Various


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