How to Use upper hand in a Sentence

upper hand

noun
  • For large swaths of the game, the senior even held the upper hand.
    Nick Moyle, San Antonio Express-News, 6 Jan. 2018
  • And my three-year-old son has quickly learned that work calls give him the upper hand.
    Kathryn Vasel, CNN, 7 July 2020
  • My guess is that someone is going to end up with the upper hand.
    Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 23 Sep. 2022
  • When such cases go to court, the bank often has the upper hand.
    Stacy Cowley, New York Times, 19 July 2019
  • In the land of light beer, Karbach may have a slight upper hand.
    Abigail Rosenthal, Chron, 7 Sep. 2021
  • The side with the upper hand may change, but the battle persists.
    Noam Cohen, Wired, 28 June 2021
  • Reigns got in a few chair shots, but Lesnar ended up with the upper hand.
    Gene Guillot, NOLA.com, 30 Mar. 2018
  • In the short term, and in select areas, that still presents renters with the upper hand.
    Noah Kirsch, Forbes, 10 June 2021
  • But Democrats will need some dough to make sure Scott doesn’t get the upper hand.
    Dylan Scott, Vox, 30 Apr. 2018
  • Whoever does the best job of that is going to have the upper hand.
    Dave Kallmann, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 23 June 2018
  • So far Mullen has the upper hand in the reclamation projects.
    Brent Zwerneman, ExpressNews.com, 29 Aug. 2020
  • There was no firm indication which of the five had the upper hand ahead of the vote.
    Washington Post, 12 Dec. 2019
  • Regardless, the big studios could have the upper hand for the first time in a while.
    Pat Saperstein, Variety, 8 Sep. 2022
  • In the legal realm, Taubman may have the upper hand in its fight to save the deal.
    Jc Reindl, Detroit Free Press, 10 June 2020
  • The 15-inch handle gives you the upper hand against tough to handle jobs.
    Chris Hachey, BGR, 19 May 2021
  • On the face of it, Liverpool has the upper hand in this regard too.
    Zak Garner-Purkis, Forbes, 27 Dec. 2022
  • For the first time in memory, workers have the upper hand in the jobs market.
    Christine Romans, CNN, 28 Jan. 2022
  • Democrats have the upper hand, pushing out each of the two bills on party-line 9-4 votes.
    Stephen Singer, courant.com, 23 Mar. 2022
  • And Stitt is on the ballot in a year when his party is supposed to have the upper hand.
    Eric Cortellessa, Time, 1 Nov. 2022
  • The winner of this game gains an upper hand in the race for the Big 12 title.
    Matt Murschel, orlandosentinel.com, 23 Oct. 2020
  • Last year, the militias had the upper hand, holding all the way up to the northern end of the highway.
    Washington Post, 9 Aug. 2019
  • Stevens said the mindset at the time was that Blacks weren't as good, and whites would always have the upper hand.
    Eplunus Colvin, Arkansas Online, 25 Apr. 2021
  • The Nuggets still have the upper hand with two of the possible three games in Denver.
    oregonlive, 1 June 2021
  • His quickness often gives him an upper hand to wall off lanes or square off rushers (zero sacks allowed).
    Dane Brugler, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2025
  • The Saints got the upper hand in that one, winning an ugly game in overtime over the Bears.
    Amie Just | Staff Writer, NOLA.com, 9 Jan. 2021
  • The first one will give one team an upper hand, but obviously can’t dictate the entire series.
    David Troy Outkick, FOXNews.com, 3 June 2026
  • But the first order of business was to regain the upper hand with MSU.
    Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press, 30 Oct. 2020
  • Does that give an upper hand to British Hamnet star Joe Alwyn?
    Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 14 May 2026
  • One of the chief methods DDoSers use to gain the upper hand is known as reflection.
    Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 28 Oct. 2022
  • The Bengals and Joe Burrow boast the upper hand with their offense.
    Mohammad Ahmad, cleveland, 17 Dec. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'upper hand.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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