Word.ws English Dictionary

upperhand

upperhand is the alternative form of upper hand.

Meaning of upper hand

Noun

the upper hand (usually uncountable, plural upper hands)

  1. (idiomatic, usually) Advantage or control.
    • There was no refusing him, for he had got the complete upper hand of the community, and the peaceful burghers all stood in awe of him.1855, Washington Irving, Guests from Gibbet Island
  2. (obsolete, usually) The place of honour accorded to a social superior when walking together; the right of way in walking

Forms of upperhand

pluralupperhands

Questions about upperhand

What is upperhand the alternative form of?
Upperhand is the alternative form of upper hand.

Words near upperhand in the dictionary

  1. uppercuts
  2. uppercutting
  3. upperer
  4. upperers
  5. upperest
  6. upperhand
  7. upperhands
  8. Upperlands
  9. Uppermill
  10. uppermore
  11. uppermost

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: upperhand (page history and authors); upper hand (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “upperhand.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/upperhand. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.