put the arm on

1. Also,. Ask for or demand money, as in He's the youngest and he's always putting the arm on Dad. The first of these slangy usages, first recorded in 1939, alludes to a robber assaulting someone by yoking his arm around the victim's throat. The bite variant, first recorded in 1919, similarly alludes to a violent attack. The last, touch, has been slang for “theft” since the mid-1800s.

Example Sentences

But prospective builders expressed concern about the complexity of that work so the state has changed tack and now plans to put the arm on land.

Read more on Seattle Times

“They put the arm on everybody. They tried to get them to do what they had to do. Many of those people were like Jeff, where they didn’t want to vote that way.”

Read more on Washington Times

The way Lehrer describes one day’s subject — “How Nixon campaign fund-raisers put the arm on American business last year, and also how and why corporation executives did what they were told, even if it meant violating the law” — is striking in its clarity.

Read more on New York Times

Early in the year, Trump put the arm on Gregory Hayes, chief executive of United Technologies, which owns Carrier — which promptly decided to retain 1,000 workers in Indianapolis rather than move them to Mexico.

Read more on Washington Post

The next day the contractor put the arm on the new tower.

Read more on Washington Times

Related Words

• accelerate 
• bump 
• depress 
• drive 
• force 
• launch 
• move 
• nudge 
• pressure 
• propel 
• shift 
• shove