Word.ws English Dictionary

have someone on toast

have someone on toast verb: to have somebody in one's power, or in a compromising or helpless position.

Verb

have someone on toast (third-person singular simple present has someone on toast, present participle having someone on toast, simple past and past participle had someone on toast)

  1. (colloquial, idiomatic) To have somebody in one's power, or in a compromising or helpless position.
    • Every crime commentator on cable news will have him on toast.2011, Michael Bowen, Service Dress Blues: A Rep & Melissa Pennyworth Mystery, page 102
    • If he'd waited ten seconds until I was on the lighted porch, he'd have had me on toast.2013, Gavin Lyall, The Wrong Side of the Sky
    Synonyms:
    have someone by the short hairs § Synonyms

Synonyms of have someone on toast

  • have someone by the short hairs § Synonyms

Forms of have someone on toast

third-person singular presenthas someone on toast
present participlehaving someone on toast
past participlehad someone on toast
pasthad someone on toast

Questions about have someone on toast

What does have someone on toast mean?
Have someone on toast means to have somebody in one's power, or in a compromising or helpless position.
What part of speech is have someone on toast?
Have someone on toast is a verb.
What is the past tense of have someone on toast?
The past tense of have someone on toast is had someone on toast.

Words near have someone on toast in the dictionary

  1. have shit on
  2. have someone by the balls
  3. have someone by the short and curlies
  4. have someone by the short hairs
  5. have someone going
  6. have someone on toast
  7. have someone there
  8. have someone to rights
  9. have someone's back
  10. have someone's blood
  11. have someone's blood on one's head

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have someone on toast (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-have someone on toast.ogg.

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