IdiomBody & Senses
English
Englisheat out of someone's hand
Meaning: To be submissive; to have someone eating out of one's hand means to get someone to be submissive.
Example: “Within five minutes of her speech, the audience was eating out of her hand.”
Origin: A wild animal that will take food from a person's hand has become completely tame and trusting. The figurative sense of someone totally under another's influence is common from the early 20th century.
More English idioms
- get something through one's head To understand something that is difficult, especially because it is a shock, unwanted, or…
- give someone a hand To help someone.
- give one's right arm to do something To want something very much.
- give someone the shirt off one's back To give (figuratively) someone all one's possessions; to be very generous.
- gray matter Brain tissue and, by extension, intelligence.
- green around the gills Sick to one's stomach; nauseated.
Explore another collection: False Friends
Words that look familiar in another language but mean something else entirely.
Keep exploring