E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Make a hand of or on (To).
To slay, destroy, waste, or spoil.
1
“So when I came to myself again, I “cried him mercy; but he said, ‘I know not to show mercy;’ and with that knockt me down again. He had, doubtless, made a hand of me, but that one came by, and bid him forbear.”—Bunyan: Pilgrim’s Progress, p. 93 (first edition).
