strong-arm

1. 1.

   handle roughly

   “He was strong-armed by the policemen”

   Broadertreat
2. 2.

   be bossy towards

   “Her big brother always bullied her when she was young”

   Synonymsbullybrowbeatbullyragballyragboss aroundhectorpush around

   Broaderintimidate

   Narrowertyrannize
3. 3.

   use physical force against

   “They strong-armed me when I left the restaurant”

   Broaderbeat

1. 1.

   impelled by physical force especially against resistance

   “forcible entry”

   “a real cop would get physical”

   “strong-arm tactics”

   Synonymsforciblephysical

   Similarforceful

Questions about strong-arm

What does strong-arm mean?

strong-arm means "handle roughly". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in strong-arm?

strong-arm has 2 syllables: stron-g-arm. The stress falls on "g-arm".

What is another word for strong-arm?

Close synonyms include bully, browbeat, bullyrag, ballyrag, boss around. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is strong-arm a common word?

strong-arm is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.