access to

access to (someone or something)

The ability to use or reach something or someone, through any number of means. I won't have access to my work email while I'm away on vacation. No, I don't have direct access to the CEO, but I'll call his assistant.
See also: access
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

*access to someone or something

permission to approach someone or something; the right to use someone or something. (*Typically: get ~; have ~; give someone ~.) Can you get access to a computer?
See also: access
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • access
  • access to (someone or something)
  • bolo
  • be on the look out
  • be on the lookout
  • on the lookout
  • thank you in advance
  • thanks in advance
  • TIA
  • a busman's holiday
References in classic literature
[1330b] have easy access to it; but that it may be difficult of access to, and hardly to be taken by, the enemy.
A path, on the principle of an inclined plane, turns round and round the building like a screw, and gives access to the different stories, intersecting each of them in its turn, and thus gradually rising to the top of the wall of the tower.
The style of these buildings evinces that the architect possessed neither the art of using lime or cement of any kind, nor the skill to throw an arch, construct a roof, or erect a stair ; and yet, with all this ignorance, showed great ingenuity in selecting the situation of Burghs, and regulating the access to them, as well as neatness and regularity in the erection, since the buildings themselves show a style of advance in the arts scarcely consistent with the ignorance of so many of the principal branches of architectural knowledge.
The short ladder, used for obtaining access to the trap-door
As to the manner in which he (or they) obtained access to the roof of the tavern, it is to be remarked that the third house, lower down in the street, was empty, and under repair--that a long ladder was left by the workmen, leading from the pavement to the top of the house-- and that, on returning to their work, on the morning of the 27th, the men found the plank which they had tied to the ladder, to prevent anyone from using it in their absence, removed, and lying on the ground.
To sleep in the rooms of the Junta meant access to their secrets, to the lists of names, to the addresses of comrades down on Mexican soil.
They could no longer gain access to the active revolutionists, and the incipient ones, in Lower California.
The criminal code of every country partakes so much of necessary severity, that without an easy access to exceptions in favor of unfortunate guilt, justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel.
On the other hand, the overwhelming proportion of young men are so normally non-alcoholic, that, never having had access to alcohol, they will never miss it.
And as if there were a special secret access to knowledge, which CHOKETH UP for those who learn anything, so do we believe in the people and in their "wisdom."
Liberty, to him, epitomized itself in access to the means of toil.
"Do you know of any persons who had access to the room while Lady Lydiard was absent from it?"
My question related to strangers who might have obtained access to the drawing-room--people calling, with her Ladyship's sanction, for subscriptions, for instance; or people calling with articles of dress or ornament to be submitted to her Ladyship's inspection.""
Who, to our own certain knowledge, had access to the letter while it was unsealed?
I waited above an hour before it came, still vainly longing for access to the library; and, after that lonely repast was concluded, I waited again about an hour and a half in great suspense and discomfort, uncertain what to do.