"have someone by the short hairs" meaning in English

See have someone by the short hairs in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-have someone by the short hairs.ogg Forms: has someone by the short hairs [present, singular, third-person], having someone by the short hairs [participle, present], had someone by the short hairs [participle, past], had someone by the short hairs [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|have<has,,had> someone by the short hairs}} have someone by the short hairs (third-person singular simple present has someone by the short hairs, present participle having someone by the short hairs, simple past and past participle had someone by the short hairs)
  1. (idiomatic) To have someone in a difficult situation in which he or she is without alternatives and can be controlled. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: have someone by the balls, have someone by the short and curlies, have someone on toast, have someone over a barrel Related terms: have the world by the tail Translations (have someone in a difficult situation): держа́ть на коротком поводке (deržátʹ na korotkom povodke) (Russian)

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "has someone by the short hairs",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "having someone by the short hairs",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "had someone by the short hairs",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "had someone by the short hairs",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "have<has,,had> someone by the short hairs"
      },
      "expansion": "have someone by the short hairs (third-person singular simple present has someone by the short hairs, present participle having someone by the short hairs, simple past and past participle had someone by the short hairs)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
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          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Russian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:",
          "text": "Beginning with a curt “Listen, Buster,” she proceeded to sketch out with admirable clearness the salient points in the situation as she envisaged it, and judging from the loud buzzing noises that came over the wire, clearly audible to me though now standing in the background, it was evident that the nub was not escaping him. They were the buzzing noises of a man slowly coming to the realization that a woman's hand had got him by the short hairs.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 June 7, Martin Peretz, “Power Trip”, in The New Republic, retrieved 2007-10-16:",
          "text": "The Saudis know that as long as we consume 7 billion barrels per year (4 billion of them imported from abroad), they have us by the short hairs.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To have someone in a difficult situation in which he or she is without alternatives and can be controlled."
      ],
      "id": "en-have_someone_by_the_short_hairs-en-verb-cnEX7RdY",
      "links": [
        [
          "difficult",
          "difficult"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "alternatives",
          "alternatives"
        ],
        [
          "control",
          "control"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To have someone in a difficult situation in which he or she is without alternatives and can be controlled."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "have the world by the tail"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "have someone by the balls"
        },
        {
          "word": "have someone by the short and curlies"
        },
        {
          "word": "have someone on toast"
        },
        {
          "word": "have someone over a barrel"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "deržátʹ na korotkom povodke",
          "sense": "have someone in a difficult situation",
          "word": "держа́ть на коротком поводке"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/En-au-have_someone_by_the_short_hairs.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "have someone by the short hairs"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "has someone by the short hairs",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "having someone by the short hairs",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "had someone by the short hairs",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "had someone by the short hairs",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "have<has,,had> someone by the short hairs"
      },
      "expansion": "have someone by the short hairs (third-person singular simple present has someone by the short hairs, present participle having someone by the short hairs, simple past and past participle had someone by the short hairs)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "have the world by the tail"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
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        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Russian translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:",
          "text": "Beginning with a curt “Listen, Buster,” she proceeded to sketch out with admirable clearness the salient points in the situation as she envisaged it, and judging from the loud buzzing noises that came over the wire, clearly audible to me though now standing in the background, it was evident that the nub was not escaping him. They were the buzzing noises of a man slowly coming to the realization that a woman's hand had got him by the short hairs.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 June 7, Martin Peretz, “Power Trip”, in The New Republic, retrieved 2007-10-16:",
          "text": "The Saudis know that as long as we consume 7 billion barrels per year (4 billion of them imported from abroad), they have us by the short hairs.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To have someone in a difficult situation in which he or she is without alternatives and can be controlled."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "difficult",
          "difficult"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "alternatives",
          "alternatives"
        ],
        [
          "control",
          "control"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To have someone in a difficult situation in which he or she is without alternatives and can be controlled."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-have someone by the short hairs.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d3/En-au-have_someone_by_the_short_hairs.ogg/En-au-have_someone_by_the_short_hairs.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/En-au-have_someone_by_the_short_hairs.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "have someone by the balls"
    },
    {
      "word": "have someone by the short and curlies"
    },
    {
      "word": "have someone on toast"
    },
    {
      "word": "have someone over a barrel"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "deržátʹ na korotkom povodke",
      "sense": "have someone in a difficult situation",
      "word": "держа́ть на коротком поводке"
    }
  ],
  "word": "have someone by the short hairs"
}

Download raw JSONL data for have someone by the short hairs meaning in English (3.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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