Palm.

An itching palm. A hand ready to receive bribes. The old superstition is that if your palm itches you are going to receive money.

“Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself

Are much condemned to have an itching palm.”

Shakespeare: Julius Cœsar, iv. 3.

To bear the palm. To be the best. The allusion is to the Roman custom of giving the victorious gladiator a branch of the palm tree.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.