in someone's wheelhouse

English

Etymology

Wikipedia states "Wheelhouses are the small enclosed parts of a bridge which historically held the ship's steering wheel." So "in someone's wheelhouse" refers to something being within one's areas of competency, like command of a ship is within a ship captain's abilities.

Prepositional phrase

in someone's wheelhouse

  1. (US, idiomatic) Matching a person's interests or abilities well.
    • 1999, Carl Deuker, Painting the Black, page 4:
      Griffey took the first pitch low, then he got one in his wheelhouse and blasted it.
    • 2004 May 21, Adam Sternbergh, Boy, Interrupted”, in New York Magazine:
      His new role, as Peter Pan author JM Barrie in Finding Neverland, is right in his wheelhouse: No other actor seems better equipped to play a man fixated on, and trapped by, perennial youth.
    • 2008, John L. Hilley, The Challenge of Legislation: Bipartisanship in a Partisan World:
      But the subject matter was right in his wheelhouse — politics and all the moving parts.

Synonyms

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