Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🤼 A neck grip 🛑 Complete control
chokehold

chokehold

3 8.0
A strong control that stops people or groups from acting freely
  • noun
  • /ˈtʃoʊkhoʊld/
translation icon : control férreo
  • I'd love to see a future where no corporate behemoths have a chokehold on the internet—but humans aren't evenly distributed geographically.

I want Donald Trump to like me, and I'm willing to put myself into a moral chokehold so that I can gain favor with him.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • Title is hardly news, but has updates on efforts to deal with China's supply chokehold.

    Blog text (22)

  • We aim to break the chokehold of Miami's developers and lobbyists on local government and the public commons.

    Blog text (5)

  • I'm seeing a chokehold on every exit that we have to bring this country back on its feet.

    George Janko

  • The Chicago-Cook County-Springfield alliance has a chokehold on our state and its politics.

    Blog text (11)

  • They feel frustrated by the Republican Congress holding President Obama in a chokehold.

    Blog text (21)

  • The grip of evangelicals and social conservatives on the party has come more to resemble a chokehold than a welcome handshake.

    Blog text (20)

  • Two years after the agency model came to bookselling, Amazon is losing its chokehold on the e-book market: its share has fallen from about 90% to roughly 60%.

    Blog text (5)

  • And seeing as Sprint is not doing so well, AT&T and Verizon would have a chokehold on the mobile industry, making it easier to form a monopoly of sorts.

    Blog text (2)

  • The powerful corporation maintained a chokehold on the market, making it difficult for new businesses to compete.

  • The government has a chokehold on the media, controlling what information is released to the public.

Synonyms

domination
vschokehold
102 4.7

To have power or control over other people

is stronger and involves total dominance that restricts freedom
stranglehold
vschokehold
17 8.0

A strong control that prevents others from changing things or acting freely

is total control that restricts activity rather than fully stopping change
short leash
vschokehold
  • Informal
12 5.7

Close control of someone that allows them little freedom

is broader and more complete dominance that removes wider freedom
yoke
vschokehold
  • Literature
9 8.6

A system that keeps people under control and stops them being free

is direct dominance by a person or group rather than a broad system
straitjacket
vschokehold
7 7.5

A situation that greatly limits freedom and progress

is active control over people or situations rather than a limiting rule

Antonyms

independence
608 3.0

Freedom from control by others, for example when a country is free or a person supports themselves

liberation
127 3.9

The act of setting people free from control or unfair treatment

Compounds

chokehold of stress
  • Informal
8.8

A strong feeling of worry that makes it hard to breathe or think

How Controlling

chokehold
3 8.0
domination
102 4.7
control
∞ 2.8
influence
806 2.3

Surface Forms

chokehold singular
chokeholds plural

Morphology

chokehold = choke + hold (semi-transparent) = choke + hold

The metaphorical sense (‘complete control’) is derived from the physical sense but requires a figurative shift, so the relation is recognizable but not literal.

Etymology

The word chokehold comes from the two words choke ('to stop breathing') and hold ('a grip'). That's why we use chokehold to mean a powerful control that 'chokes' freedom or action, because it stops people or groups from moving or acting freely.