armlock

plural armlocks

1. A wrestling move in which the opponent's arm is held immobile.
2. Any of several distinct attacks against an opponent’s arm in martial arts.
3. A fighting hold in which the arm is used to immobilise an opponent.

   It would keep the bone-cage of his body safe: no enemy's clasp would crush him in it, no vicious armlock choke his life out.

   1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 47

4. broadlyfigurativelyPower to control or heavily influence something or someone.

   Mr Chávez remains a formidable opponent. […] He has an armlock on the country’s institutions.

   2012 September 29, “Venezuela’s presidential election: The autocrat and the ballot box”, in The Economist, archived from the original on 20 Dec 2020

present singular third person armlocks · participle present armlocking · participle past armlocked · past armlocked

1. transitiveTo hold in an armlock.