Word.ws English Dictionary

putty in someone's hands

putty in someone's hands noun: one who is readily manipulated or controlled by another person; a puppet.

Noun

putty in someone's hands (uncountable)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) One who is readily manipulated or controlled by another person; a puppet.
    • Why, Marseny, here, he wan't no more than so much putty in her hands.1894 May 27, Harold Frederic, “Marsena”, in New York Times, retrieved 27 Jul 2010, page 19
    • So long as she behaves in a way to keep his love and respect he's putty in her hands.1941 December 11, “Caroline Chatfield Says”, in St. Petersburg Times, retrieved 27 Jul 2010, page 17

Synonyms of putty in someone's hands

Forms of putty in someone's hands

alternative formputty in the hands of someone

Origin of putty in someone's hands

A metaphor likening the easy malleability of putty to the easy manipulability of the person. First use appears c. 1867.

Questions about putty in someone's hands

What does putty in someone's hands mean?
Putty in someone's hands means one who is readily manipulated or controlled by another person; a puppet.
What part of speech is putty in someone's hands?
Putty in someone's hands is a noun.

Words near putty in someone's hands in the dictionary

  1. putts from the rough
  2. puttun
  3. puttuns
  4. putty
  5. putty in someone's fingers
  6. putty in someone's hands
  7. putty in the hands of someone
  8. putty knife
  9. putty knives
  10. putty medal
  11. putty medals

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: putty in someone'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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-putty in someone's hands.ogg.

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