lay a glove on

present singular third person lays a glove on · participle present laying a glove on · participle past laid a glove on · past laid a glove on

1. boxingTo hit with a boxing glove.

   In round three, Toxa moved in and out jabbing, scoring often with the bigger man unable to lay a glove on him.

   2012, Roland Perry, The Changi Brownlow, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   “You were so good he couldn't lay a glove on you. You were terrific. He tired to hit you with his knockout punch but you skillfully avoided it - do you remember how his glove whistled harmlessly past your head?

   2004, Morris Katz, The Journey, →ISBN, page 78

   Umbertino couldn't lay a glove on him. Big as he was, all it would have taken was a punch, a single roundhouse and he would have decked him. But the other guy was a grasshopper.

   2014, Davide Enia, On Earth as It Is in Heaven: A Novel, →ISBN, page 42

2. To physically touch, especially in a way that causes hurt.

   I told him not to lay a glove on you, but do like Beyoncé said, and lay a ring on you instead.

   2011, Pat G'Orge-Walker, No Ordinary Noel, →ISBN, page 196

   3 more examples

   The blinking headlights in his rearview mirror indicated the driver's anger at almost being sideswiped. “Oh, get a grip on yourself,” Dave groused as he continued accelerating. “I didn't even lay a glove on ya,” he giggled.

   2003, Bob Weir, Short Stories of Life and Death: Complexities of the Human Experience, →ISBN

   “No, you needn't worry, Peres,” he'd gone on. “I wouldn't lay a glove on you. I've been meaning to tell you; you're really not my type at all. I just didn't want...Well, you know—your self-esteem and all that. You can understand, can't you?”

   2005, Jean Minton, In the Ruins, →ISBN, page 23

   Moon was the soul of serene self-control. “He won't lay a glove on her, McTeague.” “How can you be so sure?” “Code of the West. No self-respecting frontier lawman will hit a woman.

   2007, James D. Doss, Stone Butterfly: A Charlie Moon Mystery, →ISBN

3. broadlyTo harm (someone's) reputation, to make an accusation stick.

   “The courts couldn't lay a glove on you, if that's what you did," said Silber.

   2012, Ronald P. Formisano, Boston Against Busing: Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the 1960s and 1970s, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   It was more than an anticlimax: it was a triumph for the President. “They didn't lay a glove on him,” Robert Bennett, his lawyer, told me. “On a scale of one to ten, it was a fifteen.”

   2003, Sidney Blumenthal, The Clinton Wars, →ISBN

   Even Saturday Night Live, the scourge of President Ford, could hardly lay a glove on the “Teflon president.”

   2013, Tevi Troy, What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted, →ISBN, page 144

   But if you say absolutely nothing they can't just keep you inside and do nothing with you. No feedback from you and they have nothing to lay a glove on you with and have to let you go sometime.

   2014, Jim Ore, Crime is Everywhere, →ISBN, page 148

4. To match, to provide with meaningful competition or be able to handle.

   His team did not think that their candidate was so likeable that Romney couldn't lay a glove on him. Quite the opposite.

   2014, David Horowitz, Take No Prisoners: The Battle Plan for Defeating the Left, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   And I was dubious because I thought the problem was so huge that no small amount of money that we would put in this bill would lay a glove on the problem.

   1994, United States Congress House Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs, Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related

   Warnock described City as the best team in Europe in the build-up to this match and joked that his players had been preparing for the game - and City's inevitable dominance - by training without a ball. It proved to be a prescient quip, as the home side had to toil for long periods, struggling to lay a glove on their stylish opponents.

   2018 January 28, Dafydd Pritchard, “Cardiff City 1 - 1 Manchester City”, in BBC Sport