"hold the cards" meaning in English

See hold the cards in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-hold the cards.ogg Forms: holds the cards [present, singular, third-person], holding the cards [participle, present], held the cards [participle, past], held the cards [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|hold<,,held> the cards}} hold the cards (third-person singular simple present holds the cards, present participle holding the cards, simple past and past participle held the cards)
  1. (idiomatic) To be in a strong position, possessing significant advantages over someone else; to be in control of a situation involving multiple parties. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: hold all the aces, hold all the cards Related terms: the upper hand, whip hand Translations (To be in a strong position): alle troeven in handen hebben (Dutch), hallita tilannetta (Finnish), avoir les cartes en main (French), avere il coltello dalla parte del manico (Italian), mieć przewagę [imperfective] (Polish), tener la sartén por el mango (Spanish)

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "holds the cards",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "holding the cards",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
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    },
    {
      "form": "held the cards",
      "tags": [
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    {
      "form": "held the cards",
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      "name": "en-verb"
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  "lang_code": "en",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1907, R. Austin Freeman, chapter 14, in The Red Thumb Mark:",
          "text": "\"[B]ut if you make conditions I have no choice but to accept them, seeing that you hold the cards.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1986 August 17, Peter H. Lewis, “Practical Traveller: Learning the ABC's — as well as the XYZ's — of Flying”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-01-12:",
          "text": "Once a ticket is paid for and the airline has your money, it holds the cards.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 July 10, Megan Lindow, “Why Mugabe and His Foe Are Talking”, in Time:",
          "text": "\"In the short term, from a power perspective, the current Zimbabwe elite is holding the cards,\" says Steven Friedman, director of the Center for the Study of Democracy.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be in a strong position, possessing significant advantages over someone else; to be in control of a situation involving multiple parties."
      ],
      "id": "en-hold_the_cards-en-verb-McpXF8R4",
      "links": [
        [
          "strong",
          "strong"
        ],
        [
          "position",
          "position"
        ],
        [
          "advantages",
          "advantages"
        ],
        [
          "in control",
          "in control"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To be in a strong position, possessing significant advantages over someone else; to be in control of a situation involving multiple parties."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "the upper hand"
        },
        {
          "word": "whip hand"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "hold all the aces"
        },
        {
          "word": "hold all the cards"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "To be in a strong position",
          "word": "alle troeven in handen hebben"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "To be in a strong position",
          "word": "hallita tilannetta"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "To be in a strong position",
          "word": "avoir les cartes en main"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "To be in a strong position",
          "word": "avere il coltello dalla parte del manico"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "To be in a strong position",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "mieć przewagę"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "To be in a strong position",
          "word": "tener la sartén por el mango"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
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  "word": "hold the cards"
}
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    {
      "form": "holding the cards",
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    {
      "form": "held the cards",
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    },
    {
      "form": "held the cards",
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        "past"
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      },
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      "name": "en-verb"
    }
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "the upper hand"
    },
    {
      "word": "whip hand"
    }
  ],
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        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
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        {
          "ref": "1907, R. Austin Freeman, chapter 14, in The Red Thumb Mark:",
          "text": "\"[B]ut if you make conditions I have no choice but to accept them, seeing that you hold the cards.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1986 August 17, Peter H. Lewis, “Practical Traveller: Learning the ABC's — as well as the XYZ's — of Flying”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-01-12:",
          "text": "Once a ticket is paid for and the airline has your money, it holds the cards.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 July 10, Megan Lindow, “Why Mugabe and His Foe Are Talking”, in Time:",
          "text": "\"In the short term, from a power perspective, the current Zimbabwe elite is holding the cards,\" says Steven Friedman, director of the Center for the Study of Democracy.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be in a strong position, possessing significant advantages over someone else; to be in control of a situation involving multiple parties."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "strong",
          "strong"
        ],
        [
          "position",
          "position"
        ],
        [
          "advantages",
          "advantages"
        ],
        [
          "in control",
          "in control"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To be in a strong position, possessing significant advantages over someone else; to be in control of a situation involving multiple parties."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "hold all the aces"
    },
    {
      "word": "hold all the cards"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "To be in a strong position",
      "word": "alle troeven in handen hebben"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "To be in a strong position",
      "word": "hallita tilannetta"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "To be in a strong position",
      "word": "avoir les cartes en main"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "To be in a strong position",
      "word": "avere il coltello dalla parte del manico"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "To be in a strong position",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "mieć przewagę"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "To be in a strong position",
      "word": "tener la sartén por el mango"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hold the cards"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). 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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