Eating out of someone’s hand is an idiom that may not be as old as you think. We will examine the meaning of the common saying eating out of someone’s hand, where it came from, and some examples of its idiomatic usage in sentences.
Eating out of someone’s hand means to be manipulated, to be under another’s control, to be subservient to someone. The idiom is most often rendered in reference to the person who is doing to the controlling; to have someone eating out of one’s hand. The image is of a tame animal, which may be trained to peacefully eat out of its master’s hand. Related phrases are has someone eating out of one’s hand, had someone eating out of ones’ hand, having someone eating out of one’s hand. The expression eating out of someone’s hand came into popular use in the early 1900s.
Examples
Numbers don’t mean much when Trump has the GOP leadership in the Senate eating out of his hand while the Supreme Court and the DOJ does his bidding. (The Delaware County Daily Times)
It came during the 1988 Final Four in Kansas City, when Tubbs had the national media eating out of his hand. (The Omaha World Herald)
Come chapter 19 of A Royal Romance, I had the prince eating out of my hand, had won the approval of the Cordonian press and people, and had secured a few allies at court. (Stylist Magazine)