force someone's hand
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To make someone take action or make a decision
Literally: to physically force a person's hand
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Half of Shelbyville is piling onto him, resenting his obstruction, which forces my hand a bit.
But if either of them imagines they can force my hand, they much mistake the matter!
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “force someone's hand” mean?
To make someone take action or make a decision Literally: to physically force a person's hand
Is “force someone's hand” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.