have by the short hairs
to have control over someone
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
"Facebook Has Zynga BY THE SHORT HAIRS -- But It Needs To Be Careful."
Business Insider
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"If Clinton had suggested aid to Russia, the howls would have come thundering down from the conservatives. "He's throwing money down a sinkhole." Where is the alleluja chorus now? They are quiet, because Bush is a conservative Republican. Putin doesn't have to trade with China anymore, he's got the cash cow U.S. BY THE SHORT HAIRS."
Richard Prasad, DU.com
Business Insider
---
"If Clinton had suggested aid to Russia, the howls would have come thundering down from the conservatives. "He's throwing money down a sinkhole." Where is the alleluja chorus now? They are quiet, because Bush is a conservative Republican. Putin doesn't have to trade with China anymore, he's got the cash cow U.S. BY THE SHORT HAIRS."
Richard Prasad, DU.com
Did you
know?
by the short hairs
idiom
To be 'caught/got/held by the short hairs' is to be trapped by an opponent in a position one can't easily escape from.
This amazing idiom describes exactly how uncomfortable a person would feel being under the complete control of someone else.
In Britain you may also hear the phrase "by the short and curlies" (British) which means the same thing.
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ORIGIN
Few people would doubt that the 'short hairs' or 'short and curlies' are the pubic hairs and that this phrase is of vulgar origin. Such an assumption would be incorrect. The short hairs in question are the hairs of the neck.
The expression 'by the short hairs' may well have been military and the first example of it that I have found is from The Drums of the Fore and Aft, one of Rudyard Kipling's Indian Tales, 1890, which portrays the British Army's occupation of India:
"They'll shout and carry on like this for five minutes. Then they'll rush in, and then we've got 'em by the short hairs!"
The 'short and curlies' variant is where we enter the vulgar barrack room and venture below the waist. This originated as military slang and is first recorded in Eric Partridge's A dictionary of forces' slang 1939–45, published 1948.
adapted from: http://www.phrases.org.uk
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Here are a few other "hairy" phrases:
hairy = frightening (angsteinjagend, beängstigend)
my hair stood on end = Die Haare standen mir zu Berge.
bad hair day [coll.] = Tag, an dem alles schiefgeht
by a hair's breadth = um Haaresbreite
without turning a hair = ohne mit der Wimper zu zucken
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SYNONYMS
have someone by the balls
have someone by the short and curlies
have someone over a barrel
idiom
To be 'caught/got/held by the short hairs' is to be trapped by an opponent in a position one can't easily escape from.
This amazing idiom describes exactly how uncomfortable a person would feel being under the complete control of someone else.
In Britain you may also hear the phrase "by the short and curlies" (British) which means the same thing.
---
ORIGIN
Few people would doubt that the 'short hairs' or 'short and curlies' are the pubic hairs and that this phrase is of vulgar origin. Such an assumption would be incorrect. The short hairs in question are the hairs of the neck.
The expression 'by the short hairs' may well have been military and the first example of it that I have found is from The Drums of the Fore and Aft, one of Rudyard Kipling's Indian Tales, 1890, which portrays the British Army's occupation of India:
"They'll shout and carry on like this for five minutes. Then they'll rush in, and then we've got 'em by the short hairs!"
The 'short and curlies' variant is where we enter the vulgar barrack room and venture below the waist. This originated as military slang and is first recorded in Eric Partridge's A dictionary of forces' slang 1939–45, published 1948.
adapted from: http://www.phrases.org.uk
---
Here are a few other "hairy" phrases:
hairy = frightening (angsteinjagend, beängstigend)
my hair stood on end = Die Haare standen mir zu Berge.
bad hair day [coll.] = Tag, an dem alles schiefgeht
by a hair's breadth = um Haaresbreite
without turning a hair = ohne mit der Wimper zu zucken
---
SYNONYMS
have someone by the balls
have someone by the short and curlies
have someone over a barrel
