chokehold n 1: complete power over a person or situation; "corporations have a strangelhold on the media"; "the president applied a chokehold to labor disputes that inconvenienced the public" [syn: {stranglehold}, {throttlehold}] 2: a restraining hold; someone loops the arm around the neck of another person in a tight grip, usually from behind; "he grabbed the woman in a chokehold, demanded her cash and jewelry, and then fled" [syn: {choke hold}]