Get out of hand means to become difficult or impossible to control. It can be a situation or people who are hard to manage: a noisy party, an argument, spending, children running wild. The expression is neutral, so it fits both conversation and essays, for example about prices or debts that are growing too fast.
When would you say get out of hand?
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something + get(s) out of hand; let + something + get out of hand
- The party got out of hand when fifty uninvited guests turned up.
- Our spending on takeaways got out of hand, so we started cooking at home.
- The argument in the meeting got out of hand, and our manager had to stop it.
What changed
First versionThe discussion in our group chat got out of hands very quickly.
RevisionThe discussion in our group chat got out of hand very quickly.
In this idiom hand is always singular and has no article: out of hand. Hands is a common slip. Only hands was changed to hand.
Get out of hand is not used about a car or a plane that stops responding to the controls. For that, the phrase is out of control: The car went out of control on the icy road. Get out of hand describes situations, spending and people's behaviour.
Your turn
The debate started politely, but soon people were shouting at each other and it ___.
Show the answer
got out of hand — A polite debate turned into shouting, so nobody could control it any more: it got out of hand. In this idiom hand is always singular, so got out of hands is a mistake.
Describe an event that started calmly but got out of control: a celebration, an argument or a trip. Write what it was like at the start and what went wrong.
Our office party started as a quiet lunch for six people, but it got out of hand when someone invited the whole building.
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