hammerlock
1. A wrestling hold in which one wrestler pulls their opponent's arm behind their back and twists it upward. The wrestler from Aurora High was disqualified for injuring his opponent's arm with an illegal hammerlock hold. The ref likely would have warned you if you'd increased the angle of that hammerlock. Did you hear about their teammate? Last year, a hammerlock seriously injured his shoulder, and I think he's still rehabbing.
2. A position of exploitative dominance or control. The country has had its neighbors in an economic hammerlock for decades, as it controls nearly all the overseas imports for the region. We need to get out of the hammerlock these politicians have put us into. I'm not surprised the people of that country have started to revolt—their government has kept them in a hammerlock for nearly a generation!
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