at the mercy of
41
4.4
- idiom
- Informal
:
estar a merced de
- The hikers were at the mercy of the storm and could do nothing to escape its fury.
- put at the mercy of
- leave at the mercy of
- place at the mercy of
Evergreen not at the mercy of Twitch or do you like that?
- Evergreen not at the mercy of Twitch or do you like that?
- I'm unstoppable, but I'm at the mercy of the creative.
- And I grew up in a small Southern town, so I was sort of at the mercy of what they were willing to carry.
- We are at the mercy of the public and we have to drag ourselves up.
- And I think it's very difficult in life, but we are often times at the mercy of the things that have happened to us.
- And you cannot leave the Syrian people, along with the Palestinians and others who are there at the mercy of such cruel fighting.
- Like whatever it might be, you can feel sort of at the mercy of your life and yourself and your habits and the way that you are.
- And yeah, it meant that I was, I was solely at the mercy of whatever experience I was going through.
- You need a broad and deep education or you'll be at the mercy of your clerks or the press or whatever.
- You know, you're at the mercy of a couple of people and they get to decide what gets made, what doesn't.
- When you take responsibility, then you are not at the mercy of the outside world and what happens in the outside world.
Examples
-
We are here at the mercy of God and we live only by the mercy of God.
-
The Spanish nobility were then at the mercy of the Italian bankers.
Fiction book (2002) -
And I grew up in a small Southern town, so I was sort of at the mercy of what they were willing to carry.
-
And I think it's very difficult in life, but we are often times at the mercy of the things that have happened to us.
-
When you take responsibility, then you are not at the mercy of the outside world and what happens in the outside world.
-
We pay to live here at the mercy of that old lady.
-
Anything she said would put her at the mercy of these men.
Fiction book (2001) -
You are a woman, alone, at the mercy of strangers.
-
Basically, the fishermen are at the mercy of the big guys.
-
Now Ewson and his shipmates are at the mercy of the elements.
How Vulnerable
- Informal
41
4.4
138
3.6
581
4.0
79
5.5
311
4.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
at + the + mercy + of
The noun 'mercy' (compassion/leniency) provides a clear clue so learners can roughly infer being under someone's goodwill, but the phrase actually signals a broader notion of powerlessness or exposure to another's decisions that is not fully predictable from the parts alone. Cross-linguistic equivalents (e.g. French à la merci de, Spanish a merced de) make the construction somewhat accessible, yet it functions idiomatically enough that a B1 learner would likely need prior exposure to grasp the exact sense.
Etymology
At the mercy of may come from the old image of someone kneeling before a king or judge, asking for mercy and waiting for their choice. So, it now means 'completely in the power of' someone or something and unable to control what happens.