How to Use get/have a handle on in a Sentence

get/have a handle on

idiom

• The rain — the first the region has seen for months — helped firefighters get a handle on the fire.
  — Karen Kucher, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Jan. 2025
• In recent years, a number of states have tried to get a handle on the issue.
  — Emily Tate Sullivan, USA TODAY, 21 Feb. 2024
• The best way to get a handle on this divine welter is to take a walking tour.
  — David Laskin Martin Pauer, New York Times, 1 May 2023
• Nedeljkovic made 28 saves but couldn’t get a handle on Pelech's winner.
  — Will Graves, USA TODAY, 21 Feb. 2024
• That’s because Titus, too, isn’t an easy guy to get a handle on.
  — Sean T. Collins, Vulture, 18 July 2024
• The slaying comes as cops try to get a handle on an uptick in murders and assaults in and around Times Square.
  — Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News, 9 July 2024
• The trade group is now tracking the issue through other means and working to get a handle on the specifics of the problem.
  — Evan Clark, WWD, 22 Nov. 2024
• Most models have a handle on the top and rubber feet at the bottom to ensure a firm grip.
  — Belle Duchene, Better Homes & Gardens, 8 Feb. 2024
• Crews had the Basin fire 17% contained after days of being unable to get a handle on the fire.
  — Rachel Uranga, Los Angeles Times, 2 July 2024
• By then, the FBI was starting to get a handle on the extent of the problem — if not exactly what to do about it.
  — Alex Morris, Rolling Stone, 4 Jan. 2024
• The feeling that the Stars have a handle on things took a bad spill Sunday night when Heiskanen went down for far, far too long.
  — Tim Cowlishaw, Dallas News, 8 May 2023
• In recent years, several states have tried to get a handle on the issue.
  — Emily Tate Sullivan, USA TODAY, 21 Feb. 2024
• How to get a handle on your finances after being let go from your job.
  — Ron Lieber, New York Times, 10 Feb. 2023
• As the summer begins, Bronx cops are trying to get a handle on an 8% jump in shootings in the borough this year.
  — Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News, 25 June 2024
• But even the most tech-savvy person might struggle to get a handle on every detail.
  — Chelsea Leu, The Atlantic, 7 Nov. 2023
• Towns around the state had tried various ways to get a handle on the issue, leading to a patchwork of efforts.
  — Brian Amaral, BostonGlobe.com, 29 July 2022
• Public health officials are still trying to get a handle on the drug, as well as how best to respond to it.
  — Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Jan. 2023
• New trade agreements to rectify this oversight are needed if the world is to get a handle on food prices.
  — Christopher B. Barrett, Foreign Affairs, 25 July 2022
• It’s been a difficult condition to get a handle on, or treat.
  — Josh Fischman, Scientific American, 29 Mar. 2023
• At the end of the series, so many of the other characters seem to have a handle on their own equations and are moving forward with their lives.
  — Vulture, 2 June 2023
• As a result, governments struggle to get a handle on the real threats and risks already out there.
  — Marietje Schaake, Foreign Affairs, 13 Oct. 2020
• In the letter, the church official was concerned something bad would happen if police did not get a handle on things.
  — Vincent Hill, Baltimore Sun, 26 July 2024
• School districts are trying to get a handle on the technology.
  — Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times, 10 Apr. 2024
• The leak will only up the stakes for Fulton County to get a handle on a cyberattack that has hobbled services for weeks.
  — Sean Lyngaas, CNN, 14 Feb. 2024
• In parts of Portland, those ambitions have stalled as leaders try to get a handle on the mounting homeless crisis.
  — Gwozniac, oregonlive, 30 July 2023
• Ricky must learn how to set his own schedule, something the constantly late and often apologetic man can’t seem to get a handle on.
  — Matthew Creith, IndieWire, 27 Jan. 2025
• Impossible to get a handle on with one lone visit — or six visits even.
  — Scott Hocker, theweek, 15 Apr. 2024
• Of course, refinancing is not your only option to get a handle on student loan debt.
  — Becca Stanek, theweek, 18 Oct. 2024
• Also last month, a co-founder of Salt & Straw ice cream shops said the company would move its Southeast Portland headquarters out of state if the city didn’t get a handle on crime.
  — oregonlive, 4 Dec. 2022
• The company has been scrambling to raise cash to get a handle on liabilities that totaled about $187 billion at the end of June.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 5 Sep. 2023