twist someone's arm
(Redirected from twist somebody's arm)
English
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Verb
edittwist someone's arm (third-person singular simple present twists someone's arm, present participle twisting someone's arm, simple past and past participle twisted someone's arm)
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: To apply torsion along the length of the arm of (a person).
- 2013, Justina Ireland, Vengeance Bound, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 295:
- I twist his arm, a snap signaling when it breaks. His screams reverberate in the tiny apartment.
- (figuratively) To coerce, force, or cajole.
- They had to twist his arm, but they got him to join the project.
- 2009, Mark Gevisser, A Legacy of Liberation, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 152:
- Either to sully his reputation or to twist his arm into further cooperation, the authorities slapped a second, unrelated charge onto his sheet: He was accused of defrauding his clients' trust funds of a few hundred dollars.