CONTROLunable to do anything to protect yourself from someone or something 任凭某人/某物的摆布〔而无力保护自己〕
After the boat’s motor failed, they were at the mercy of the weather.
船的马达坏了,他们只能听命于天气了。
She was completely at his mercy.
她完全听任他的摆布。
Examples from the Corpus
at the mercy of somebody/something• With that relationship gone, they are at the mercy of more laws and more political meddling.• You are at the mercy of the man upstairs.• But like Jim, she soon found herself at the mercy of events.• Putting him at the mercy of men like you, Creller?• Once again Oliver is separated from his friends and left at the mercy ofstrangers.• Even compassion for a man so much at the mercy of his physicalurges.• With monarchy, the essential problem is that power is put at the mercy ofrelatives and genetics.• He says you're at the mercy of the elements and you just go where the weather takes you.• Having lost engine power, the boat's crew found themselves at the mercy of the wind.• Ten milesstraight up, at the mercy ofbears, leopards and tigers.