strangle
To kill someone by stopping their breathing, usually by squeezing their neck.
To kill someone by squeezing their neck or blocking their throat so they cannot breathe.
To stop something from working well by limiting it a lot.
To severely limit, restrict, or cut off something such as money, supply, movement, or activity.
To stop something (like an idea) from growing or happening.
To prevent an idea, process, or activity from developing or being expressed freely.
To make it hard for someone to breathe, like something is tight around their throat.
To make someone unable to breathe easily by tightening around their throat or by strongly affecting their breathing.
To stop something living or burning by not letting it get enough air, light, or space.
To stop something from surviving or continuing by depriving it of air, light, or space, especially when plants crowd other plants, or when a fire is cut off from oxygen.
In trading, a plan using a call and a put at different prices.
In finance, an options strategy that involves buying or selling a call and a put with different strike prices but the same expiration date, used to bet on (or hedge against) a large move in price.
- Base: strangle
- 3rd Person Singular: strangles
- Present Participle: strangling
- Past: strangled
have a stranglehold on
1have very strong control
To control something strongly.
- A few big companies have a stranglehold on the market.
- For years, the party had a stranglehold on local politics.
- Social media can have a stranglehold on people’s attention.
- That company has a stranglehold on the market.
- He has a stranglehold on the team’s decisions.
strangle (something) in the cradle
1stop early before it grows
To stop something when it is just beginning.
- The proposal was strangled in the cradle by a lack of funding.
- They tried to strangle the reform in the cradle before it reached parliament.
- Bad reviews can strangle a new product in the cradle.
- They strangled the plan in the cradle.
strangle the life out of (something)
1suppress completely and harshly
To stop something by controlling it too much.
- Too much bureaucracy can strangle the life out of a small company.
- Constant criticism strangled the life out of his confidence.
- The new policy strangled the life out of community projects.