The exercise of superior power or strength; the use of force. Now rare; formerly common in phr. † by, with strong hand, by force, by (illegal) violence.
1382. Wyclif, Exod. iii. 19. The kyng of Egipte shal not ȝyue ȝow leue that ȝe goon, but bi strong hoond [Vulg. per manum validam]. Ibid., xxxii. 11. Thi puple, whom thow hast ladde out of the loond of Egipte … in a stroong hoond [Vulg. in manu robusta].
1386. Rolls of Parlt., III. 225/1. Nichol Brembre … with stronge honde … was chosen Mair.
1390. Gower, Conf., Prol. 716. Cesar Julius … With great bataile and with strong honde All Grece, Perse and eke Caldee Wan and put under.
1476. J. Paston, in P. Lett., III. 155. Robard Brandon and Colevyle have … enformyd my lady that ye wold have gotyn Caster fro hyr by stronge hand.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. xi. 73 b. And yet in a good cause he procedeth but thus farr, that if it come to violence and strong hande, he sayeth that he wyll geue place.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., III. i. 98. If by strong hand you offer to breake in…, A vulgar comment will be made of it.
1656–9. B. Harris, Parival’s Iron Age, 205. They shut the Parliament house door, and kept the Speaker by strong hand in his Chair.
1713. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 23 April. I carried it with the strongest hand possible.
1799. Durnford & East, Cases K. B. (1800), VIII. 357. The defendants … with force and arms, unlawfully, and injuriously, and with a strong hand, entered into a certain mill.
1888. W. H. James, in Times, 21 Aug., 7/3. When war is declared the law that obtains between belligerents is the law of the strong hand tempered as much as may be with humanity.
