Armlock

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A wrestling move in which the opponent's arm is held immobile.
  2. 2
    Any of several distinct attacks against an opponent’s arm in martial arts.
  3. 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."

  4. 4
    Power to control or heavily influence something or someone. broadly, figuratively

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

Verb
  1. 1
    To hold in an armlock. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
joint lock

Example

More examples

"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."

Etymology

From arm + lock.

Related phrases

martial art

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.