Tommy Tran
2021-01-04 07:01
Caught by the short hairs (or short and curlies) British informal verb phrase
The verb "catch" can be replaced by "have/get".
To have someone in a difficult situation in which you have complete power over them.
I caught Jay by the short hairs because I knew what he had done.
He caught us by the short and curlies when he found out about our little secret.
a person who is easily deceived or manipulated to do something, especially giving someone money.
1. To seize or take control of someone, something, or some place with a sudden and fierce attack
2. To gain a rapid and great fame or success in a place, a field or a particular group of people
To be under the control of someone or something
If someone live under the cat's foot, they are under the dominion of another person, typically their wife.
The verb "catch" should be conjugated according to its tense.
The phrase refers to the hairs on the neck and it may have been used in the military. It was first used by Rudyard Kipling in The Drums of the Fore and Aft from 1890, regarding 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 meaning of the phrase changed when L. Dorothy Slayers in her collaboration with Robert Eustace in her novel Doctors in Case from 1930 wrote:
“She’s evidently got her husband by the short hairs.”
Since then, the phrase has been used in different variants.
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