Word.ws English Dictionary

lay a glove on

lay a glove on verb: to hit with a boxing glove.

Verb

lay a glove on (third-person singular simple present lays a glove on, present participle laying a glove on, simple past and past participle laid a glove on)

  1. To hit with a boxing glove.
    • “You were so good he couldn't lay a glove on you. You were terrific. He tired to hit you with his knockout punch but you skillfully avoided it - do you remember how his glove whistled harmlessly past your head?2004, Morris Katz, The Journey, →ISBN, page 78
    • In round three, Toxa moved in and out jabbing, scoring often with the bigger man unable to lay a glove on him.2012, Roland Perry, The Changi Brownlow, →ISBN
  2. To physically touch, especially in a way that causes hurt.
    • The blinking headlights in his rearview mirror indicated the driver's anger at almost being sideswiped. “Oh, get a grip on yourself,” Dave groused as he continued accelerating. “I didn't even lay a glove on ya,” he giggled.2003, Bob Weir, Short Stories of Life and Death: Complexities of the Human Experience, →ISBN
    • “No, you needn't worry, Peres,” he'd gone on. “I wouldn't lay a glove on you. I've been meaning to tell you; you're really not my type at all. I just didn't want...Well, you know—your self-esteem and all that. You can understand, can't you?”2005, Jean Minton, In the Ruins, →ISBN, page 23
  3. (broadly) To harm (someone's) reputation, to make an accusation stick.
    • It was more than an anticlimax: it was a triumph for the President. “They didn't lay a glove on him,” Robert Bennett, his lawyer, told me. “On a scale of one to ten, it was a fifteen.”2003, Sidney Blumenthal, The Clinton Wars, →ISBN
    • “The courts couldn't lay a glove on you, if that's what you did," said Silber.2012, Ronald P. Formisano, Boston Against Busing: Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the 1960s and 1970s, →ISBN
  4. To match, to provide with meaningful competition or be able to handle.
    • And I was dubious because I thought the problem was so huge that no small amount of money that we would put in this bill would lay a glove on the problem.1994, United States Congress House Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs, Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related
    • His team did not think that their candidate was so likeable that Romney couldn't lay a glove on him. Quite the opposite.2014, David Horowitz, Take No Prisoners: The Battle Plan for Defeating the Left, →ISBN

Examples of lay a glove on in a sentence

  • “He won't lay a glove on her, McTeague.” “How can you be so sure?” “Code of the West.2007, James D. Doss, Stone Butterfly: A Charlie Moon Mystery, →ISBN:
  • I told him not to lay a glove on you, but do like Beyoncé said, and lay a ring on you instead.2011, Pat G'Orge-Walker, No Ordinary Noel, →ISBN, page 196:
  • Even Saturday Night Live, the scourge of President Ford, could hardly lay a glove on the “Teflon president.”2013, Tevi Troy, What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted, →ISBN, page 144:
  • No feedback from you and they have nothing to lay a glove on you with and have to let you go sometime.2014, Jim Ore, Crime is Everywhere, →ISBN, page 148:

Forms of lay a glove on

third-person singular presentlays a glove on
present participlelaying a glove on
past participlelaid a glove on
pastlaid a glove on

Origin of lay a glove on

From the sport of boxing, referring to managing to hit someone with one's boxing glove.

Questions about lay a glove on

What does lay a glove on mean?
Lay a glove on means to hit with a boxing glove.
How do you use lay a glove on in a sentence?
“He won't lay a glove on her, McTeague.” “How can you be so sure?” “Code of the West.
What part of speech is lay a glove on?
Lay a glove on is a verb.
What is the past tense of lay a glove on?
The past tense of lay a glove on is laid a glove on.

Words near lay a glove on in the dictionary

  1. laxumin
  2. Laxå
  3. lay
  4. lay a finger on
  5. lay a foundation
  6. lay a glove on
  7. lay a hand on
  8. lay a trip on
  9. lay a venue
  10. lay about
  11. lay above

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lay a glove 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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