Brewer's: Lift

To have one at a lift is to have one in your power. When a wrestler has his antagonist in his hands and lifts him from the ground, he has him “at a lift,” or in his power.

`Sirra,' says be, `I have you at a lift. Now you are come unto your latest shift.' 

Percy: Reliques, Gay and Amarant

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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