have/take/get the measure of (someone)

idiom

chiefly British

: to have or get a good understanding about what is needed to defeat or deal with (someone one is competing against)

She failed to take the measure of her opponent.

Examples of have/take/get the measure of (someone) in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But the demonstrations did not just take the measure of farmers’ unhappiness. —Marie Hyland, Foreign Affairs, 23 May 2024

Two teams of astronomers boarded ships steaming from Liverpool, England, in March 1919 to watch the eclipse and take the measure of the stars. —Rebecca Boyle, TIME, 8 Apr. 2024

In this gnarled, complex profile, Grayson Schaffer tries to get the measure of the man from all angles, folding in everything from Purja’s newfound influencer clientele to the fraught history of the Nepali sherpa community. —Peter Rubin, Longreads, 25 Jan. 2023

Other actors will take the measure of U.S. credibility from what Washington is prepared to do to confront the inconvenient realities that will almost certainly define the postconflict landscape. —Aaron David Miller, Foreign Affairs, 22 Dec. 2023

The work’s imaginative scoring includes a key part for three vocalists (here Eliza Bagg, Martha Cluver, and Sonja Dutoit Tengblad) who sing textless tones that seemingly take the measure of the larger mood. —Jeremy Eichler, BostonGlobe.com, 31 July 2023

In some ways, the popular route is also a perfect place to take the measure of a sport that has made Colombia the cycling epicenter of Latin America. —James Wagner, New York Times, 12 July 2023

Here are five articles from our archives that take the measure of this new generation of artificial intelligence. —Eric Smalley, The Conversation, 19 Apr. 2023

Now, Scott Alan Lucas speaks to Lee’s friends and associates — some of whom are far more sympathetic than others — take the measure of a man who, by all accounts, was loved dearly. —Peter Rubin, Longreads, 19 Apr. 2023