have someone by the short hairs

Meaning: (idiomatic)To have someone in adifficultsituationin which he or she is withoutalternativesand can becontrolled.1960,P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIX, inJeeves in the Offing, London:Herbert Jenkins,→OCLC: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 handhad got him by the short hairs.2002June 7, Martin Peretz, “Power Trip”, inThe New Republic, retrieved 16 Oct. 2007:The Saudis know that as long as we consume 7 billion barrels per year (4 billion of them imported from abroad), theyhaveusby the short hairs.

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