have a handle on

Definitions

1. 1

   To understand or grasp.

   • To work efficiently, it's important to have a handle on the procedures involved.
2. 2

   To be in control of, to have power over.

   • But the other three problems had all grown out of assigning jobs to people he had no handle on.
   • We don't have to report to them anymore, but they still have a handle on our Justice Department and the police.

The neighborhood