stranglehold
/ˈstraŋɡ(ə)lhəʊld
/noun [in singular]
1A grip around the neck of another person that can kill by asphyxiation if held for long enough.Marco stuttered, and tried to loose the stranglehold at his neck....
- He had taken but two steps before he was engulfed by a pair of slender arms and he endured the stranglehold of their embrace only as long as he deemed appropriate before he freed himself from his official bride.
- The arm seized him around the neck, tightening in a stranglehold.
1.1Complete or overwhelming control: in France, supermarkets have less of a stranglehold on food supplies...
- The corporate controlled mass media would essentially have a stranglehold on information distribution if it were not for the Internet.
- Just when it seemed like the corporations had a stranglehold on the culture industries, counterculture has gone mainstream.
- The United States couldn't do enough to put a stranglehold around Afghanistan.