Figuratively, Often To bully, to intimidate; to coerce, to muscle.
One of the boss’ hangers-on Comes to call at times you least expect Try to bully ya—strong-arm you—inspire you with fear2001, Bob Dylan, “Floater (Too Much to Ask)”, in Love and Theft:
In a five-part series on the “Extremely Passive Aggressive Roommate,” Ms. Brier […] complains about her roomie coming home at 3:27 a.m.; strong-arms that roommate into renewing their lease and then welcomes a guest to “the common space.”2023 March 14, Alexandra Jacobs, “Your Annoying Roommate Is Slaying on TikTok”, in The New York Times:
2 more examples
It is difficult to summarise the arrogance, contempt, complacency and incompetence shown by the DfT in a scheme where it strong-armed the rail industry (in the form of the Rail Delivery Group) to 'front up'.2023 August 9, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Disinterested and dishonest”, in RAIL, number 989, page 3:
The CEO was often forced back into damage control mode, however, including denying reports from the Wall Street Journal earlier this year that X had strong-armed companies to advertise on the platform by threatening lawsuits against them.2025 July 9, Blake Montgomery, Nick Robins-Early, “Linda Yaccarino stepping down as CEO of Elon Musk’s X”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
A person who threatens or intimidates others, especially on behalf of somebody else; a goon or enforcer.
There used to be a goon I knew in the Bronx—a tough mockie we used to call Yussel the Bricklayer—and you never saw a guy who was more screwed up. This guy Yussel would've been a strongarm for nothing, he enjoyed it so much.2000, Irving Shulman, The Big Brokers:
"Some applications will fail. ORR does not need strong-arm tactics from DfT muddying the waters."2025 July 9, David Stubbings, “Network News: Open access row: DfT accused of "strong-arm tactics"”, in RAIL, number 1039, page 6: