twist someone's arm

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twist 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)

1. 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.

2. (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.