avere per le mani

Italian

Etymology

Literally, “to have by the hands”.

Verb

avére per le mani (first-person singular present (with syntactic gemination after the verb) hò per le mani, first-person singular past historic èbbi per le mani or ébbi per le mani, past participle avùto per le mani, first-person singular future avrò per le mani, first-person singular subjunctive àbbia per le mani, second-person singular imperative àbbi per le mani, auxiliary avére)

1. (transitive, idiomatic) to have on one's plate; to have on one's hands
   • 2020, Barack Obama, chapter 22, in Chicca Galli, Paolo Lucca, Giuseppe Maugeri, transl., Una terra promessa [A Promised Land], Garzanti Libri:

     Ciononostante, considerato tutto quello che già avevo per le mani, non è che la situazione in Europa mi togliesse il sonno di notte.

     But given everything else on my plate, the situation in Europe hadn't been keeping me up at night.

     (literally, “Nevertheless, considering everything that I already had on my plate, it was not the situation in Europe that kept me up at night.”)