strengthen someone's hand

strengthen | American Dictionary

strengthen
verb[ I/T ]
us/ˈstreŋk·θən, ˈstreŋ-/

strengthenverb[I/T] (BECOME EFFECTIVE)

to become more effective, or to make something more effective:
[ T ]Somehow his illness strengthened their marriage and brought them closer together.
[ T ]Parents can strengthen ties with their children.

strengthenverb[I/T] (BECOME POWERFUL)

to become more powerful or more difficult to break, or to make something stronger:
[ T ]If something isn’t done to strengthen the railroad bridge, it may collapse.
[ I ]The tone of her voice strengthened suddenly.
[ T ]Exercise will strengthen your legs.

strengthen | Business English

strengthen
verb
uk /ˈstreŋθən/us
[ T ]
to make something more effective or powerful:
A discussion paper aiming to strengthen the EU's competition regime has been circulated amongst commissioners.
Research and development expenses amounted to €76m in the first six months, reflecting the company's desire to further strengthen its technological leadership.
Recent efforts have been made to strengthen the role of outside directors.
strengthen your position/performance/controlMobile operators need to strengthen their control over revenue and profit.
strengthen laws/regulations/mechanismsThe Oil Conservation Division is in the process of trying to strengthen regulations over oil waste pits.
[ I or T ] FINANCE
if the financial position of a company, economy, etc. strengthens, or if something strengthens it, it improves:
Proceeds of the sale will be used to pay off existing debt in order to strengthen the balance sheet.
Year-on-year GDP growth continued to strengthen in the first quarter.
be strengthened (by sth)Their market position has been strengthened by the purchase of their main US rival.
[ I or T ] MONEY
if a currency strengthens, or if something strengthens it, it increases in value compared to other currencies:
The euro strengthened against the dollar.
a strengthening dollar/euro/yen, etc.
 strengthen sb's hand
to improve someone's chances of success:
A deal with JFK airport would strengthen our hand in winning more overseas contracts.

Examples of strengthen

strengthen
The literature on this subject could have been strengthened by recent high-profile publications.
This strengthens the case for work factors having a greater impact on socioeconomic inequalities in psychological distress among men.
More generally, greater synthesis of research findings and more explicit discussion of explanatory theories and concepts would have strengthened the value of the book.
Every centre was encouraged to strengthen its social science research, to address particular themes and overall staff numbers.
As the structural dimension of solidarity had not strengthened, it was not surprising that the third hypotheses also had to be rejected.
This should rather have strengthened their original support for the tax, instead of turning them against it.
Because this strengthening typically takes place through a reduction in credit creation, it can produce a credit crunch that exacerbates the recession.
Since it does not, this assumption strengthens the analysis that it is not present in these persons and numbers.
In a few places the arguments would have been strengthened by use of additional material.
These results led to the development of several dissemination activities to strengthen the recommendations on the appropriateness of breast cancer screening.
The conjugal bond has strengthened, and has weakened the traditionally strong bonds with siblings, parents and other relatives of the extended family.
In each case, clans further penetrated formal institutions and strengthened their control of the state's economic and political resources.
If anything, the dominion of general medical practice was strengthened.
Some guidance about these resources would have strengthened the book, as would more guidance and encouragement about using journals.
The interplay of strengthening and relaxation is an old theme in optimization that goes under the name of primal-dual methods.
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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.