a stick to beat sb with
something that you can use to criticize, influence, or cause difficulty for someone or something you dislike or disapprove of:
The country's lack of openess was used as a stick to beat it with.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Advantage and disadvantage
- a free ride idiom
- advantage
- an ace up your sleeve idiom
- attraction
- be well in there idiom
- be/stay/keep one jump ahead idiom
- cash
- cash in on sth
- edge
- fish
- it's tough at the top idiom
- lock in sth
- lock sb out of sth
- lose out
- make a virtue (out) of sth idiom
- piggyback
- profit
- profit from sth
- you've got nothing to lose idiom
- your best/strongest/trump card idiom
See more results »