to have on the hip, is to have an advantage over another. It seems to be taken from hunting, the hip or haunch of a deer being the part commonly seized by dogs.--Johnson.
If this poor brach of Venice, whom I cherish
For his quick hunting, stand the putting on,
I'll have our Michael Cassion on the hip.--Shakspeare, Othello.
When you want to get a man on the hip, ask him a question or two, and get his answers, and then you have him in a corner.--S. Slick in England.