'The upper hand' definitions:
Definition of 'The upper hand'
From: GCIDE
- Upper \Up"per\, a.; comp. of Up. Being further up, literally or figuratively; higher in place, position, rank, dignity, or the like; superior; as, the upper lip; the upper side of a thing; the upper house of a legislature. [1913 Webster]
- The upper hand, the superiority; the advantage. See {To have the upper hand}, under Hand. --Jowett (Thucyd.).
- Upper Bench (Eng. Hist.), the name of the highest court of common law (formerly King's Bench) during the Commonwealth.
- Upper case, the top one of a pair of compositor's cases. See the Note under 1st Case, n., 3.
- Upper covert (Zool.), one of the coverts situated above the bases of the tail quills.
- Upper deck (Naut.), the topmost deck of any vessel; the spar deck.
- Upper leather, the leather for the vamps and quarters of shoes.
- Upper strake (Naut.), the strake next to the deck, usually of hard wood, and heavier than the other strakes.
- Upper ten thousand, or (abbreviated) Upper ten, the ten thousand, more or less, who are highest in position or wealth; the upper class; the aristocracy. [Colloq.]
- Upper topsail (Naut.), the upper half of a double topsail.
- Upper works (Naut.), all those parts of the hull of a vessel that are properly above water.
- Upper world. (a) The atmosphere. (b) Heaven. (c) This world; the earth; -- in distinction from the underworld. [1913 Webster]