Word.ws English Dictionary

having a handle on

having a handle on is the present participle and gerund of have a handle on.

Meaning of have a handle on

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To understand or grasp.
    • To work efficiently, it's important to have a handle on the procedures involved.
  2. (idiomatic) To be in control of, to have power over.
    • But the other three problems had all grown out of assigning jobs to people he had no handle on.2003, Tony Hillerman, The Sinister Pig, →ISBN, page 36

Questions about having a handle on

What is having a handle on the present participle and gerund of?
Having a handle on is the present participle and gerund of have a handle on.

Words near having a handle on in the dictionary

  1. having a good mind to
  2. having a good one
  3. having a good time
  4. having a good time of it
  5. having a hand in
  6. having a handle on
  7. having a hard time
  8. having a hard time of it
  9. having a head for
  10. having a head on one's shoulders
  11. having a heart

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: having a handle on (page history and authors); have a handle on (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: “having a handle on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/having_a_handle_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.