on/in his hands

[joham]

1 He has a lot of time on his hands. (Can we use 'in his hands'?)
2 He has a competitior on his hands. (What does the sentence mean? And can we use 'in his hands'?)
3 They have still got an economic crisis on their hands. (Can we use 'in their hands'?)

 

[Raymott]

No, "on his/their hands" is idiomatic. "In his/their hands" is not.
2 means "He has a competitor to deal with".

 

[Rover_KE]

Click here to see examples of how 'in his hands' can be used.

Change 'his' to 'my', 'your', 'their' etc for lots more examples.

Bookmark the fraze.it site for future reference.

 

[joham]

Thank you very much, Raymott and Rover, for your great help. For the last two hours I've been studying phrases with HAND on the FrazeIt website. Thank you again.