Word.ws English Dictionary

have the world by the bag

have the world by the bag is the alternative form of have the world by the tail.

Meaning of have the world by the tail

Verb

have the world by the tail (third-person singular simple present has the world by the tail, present participle having the world by the tail, simple past and past participle had the world by the tail)

  1. (idiomatic) To possess great influence and opportunity.
    • "Webb thinks he's got the world by the tail for a downhill pull. I'll show him."1919, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 15, in A Man Four-Square

Forms of have the world by the bag

third-person singular presenthas the world by the bag
present participlehaving the world by the bag
past participlehad the world by the bag
pasthad the world by the bag

Questions about have the world by the bag

What is have the world by the bag the alternative form of?
Have the world by the bag is the alternative form of have the world by the tail.

Words near have the world by the bag in the dictionary

  1. have the sun in one's eyes
  2. have the tiger by the tail
  3. have the time
  4. have the wind up
  5. have the wolf by the ear
  6. have the world by the bag
  7. have the world by the balls
  8. have the world by the neck
  9. have the world by the nuts
  10. have the world by the tail
  11. have the world by the tail on a downhill pull

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have the world by the bag (page history and authors); have the world by the tail (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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Cite this entry: “have the world by the bag.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/have_the_world_by_the_bag. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.