eat out of the palm of someone's hand

English

Alternative forms

• eat from the palm of someone's hand

Etymology

A reference to the way an animal must be tamed before it will eat from someone's palm.

Verb

eat out of the palm of someone's hand (third-person singular simple present eats out of the palm of someone's hand, present participle eating out of the palm of someone's hand, simple past ate out of the palm of someone's hand, past participle eaten out of the palm of someone's hand)

1. To obey, cooperate with, or believe with no resistance or hesitation; to be completely charmed by.
   • 1977, Mary L. Gottesfeld, Mary Evans Pharis, Profiles in Social Work, page 60:

     And there I worked with children because I had been a school teacher and children ate out of the palm of my hand.

   • 2002, Thomas E. Posey, The Son Rises in Texas, page 184:

     By the end of his sixth grade year he had most of the faculty eating out of the palm of his hand (about like James Brolin eats out of Barbara Streisand's. She makes about a hundred million dollars a year off of album sales, and he makes less than a valet at Chilis for that anemic late night cheesy top gun wanna' be imitation show, Tequila gold or something like that) like a thoroughbred on race day eats out of his trainer's, which reminds me of a great old story about how a certain horse never lost a race because of what the trainer had in his hand (no it wasn't a sugar cube Einstein) and when race officials questioned the trainer about what was in fact in his hand, the trainer offered everyone a taste of the aforementioned substance in question (in order to prove his innocence), with the upshot being, only the horse and the persons who sampled the mysterious granular substance could have won the race that day, but I don't have time to tell the story, so maybe next time I will.

   • 2007 -, Tim Watson -, Kevin Sheedy - The Jigsaw Man:

     Whether he was trotting out the greatest load of confusing rubbish or whether he was offering substance, I was eating out of the palm of his hand.

   • 2008, Grandmaster Flash, David Ritz, The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats, page 104:

     Keith did whatever it took to get the crowd moving. And the crowd ate out of the palm of his hand.

   • 2011, Colin Larkin, The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, page 1977:

     By 1980 Isaacs was the number one star in the reggae world, touring the UK and the USA extensively, and his live appearances resulted in frenzied crowd scenes, with audiences eating out of the palm of his hand.

   • 2014, Victoria Chancellor, The C.E.O. & The Cookie Queen:

     Everyone was eating out of the palm of his hand. Everyone except her.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see eat,‎ out of,‎ palm,‎ hand.
   • 1980, George H. Gay, Sole survivor: the Battle of Midway and its effects on his life, page 155:

     The interpreter said, "He says, 'give him salt'." They gave him a five-cent box of Morton's salt which he ate out of the palm of his hand.

   • 2015, Alain Poissant, The Fate of Bonté III:

     She was waiting for him to give her a handful of mash, and he did. She ate out of the palm of his hand and laid down again.

Usage notes

Usually in a phrase of the form "have (or had) eating out of the palm of someone's hand".

Anagrams

• ate out of the palm of someone's hand