Handle

He has a handle to his name. Some title, as “lord,” “sir,” “doctor.” The French say Monsieur sans queue, a man without a tail (handle to his name).

To give a handle to … . To give grounds for suspicion; as, “He certainly gave a handle to the rumour.”

“He gave a handle to his enemies, and threw stumbling-blocks in the way of his friends.”—Hazlitt: Spirit of the Age (James Macintosh), p. 139.

· ·

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.