Word.ws English Dictionary

have the cards in one's hands

have the cards in one's hands verb: to have the initiative for, or the means of, success; to be in a position to control the outcome.

Verb

have the cards in one's hands (third-person singular simple present has the cards in one's hands, present participle having the cards in one's hands, simple past and past participle had the cards in one's hands)

  1. To have the initiative for, or the means of, success; to be in a position to control the outcome.
    • Gogs bloud Iacke, haue we the cards in our hands?
      Lets take it vpon vs while we haue it.1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act I
    Synonyms:
    have the cards

Synonyms of have the cards in one's hands

Forms of have the cards in one's hands

third-person singular presenthas the cards in one's hands
present participlehaving the cards in one's hands
past participlehad the cards in one's hands
pasthad the cards in one's hands

Questions about have the cards in one's hands

What does have the cards in one's hands mean?
Have the cards in one's hands means to have the initiative for, or the means of, success; to be in a position to control the outcome.
What part of speech is have the cards in one's hands?
Have the cards in one's hands is a verb.
What is the past tense of have the cards in one's hands?
The past tense of have the cards in one's hands is had the cards in one's hands.

Words near have the cards in one's hands in the dictionary

  1. have the best of it
  2. have the biscuit
  3. have the black ox tread on one's foot
  4. have the blues
  5. have the cards
  6. have the cards in one's hands
  7. have the dirts with
  8. have the drains up
  9. have the drop on
  10. have the first idea
  11. have the floor

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have the cards in one's hands (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.

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