headlock

IPA/ˈhedlɒk/
IPA/ˈhedlɑːk/

headlock — noun

  • headlocksingular
  • headlocksplural

1. a fighting or wrestling grip in which one person wraps an arm tightly around ano

1.nounC1
Definition

a fighting or wrestling grip in which one person wraps an arm tightly around another person's neck and head, so the other person cannot pull away or strike back.

Example

Mateo grabbed his little brother in a playful headlock and ruffled his hair.

collocation: grab someone in a headlock

The wrestler twisted out of the headlock and pinned his opponent to the mat.

collocation: twist/break out of a headlock

Common collocations
  • put someone in a headlock
  • grab someone in a headlock
  • break out of a headlock
  • tight headlock
Synonyms
  • chokehold

    applies pressure to the throat to restrict breathing; a headlock mainly traps the head and neck without choking

  • stranglehold

    specifically cuts off the airway; also widely used as a figurative term for total control

Grammar Patterns

put/get [someone] in a headlock

Usage Note

Almost always countable and used with the verbs put, grab, hold, get, or break out of. The grip name appears far more often than the action verb 'headlock' itself.

Common Mistakes

He made a headlock on his brother.
He put his brother in a headlock.
the standard pattern is 'put/hold [someone] IN a headlock', not 'make a headlock'.

Word family

  • armlock
    nounC2
  • leglock
    nounC2
  • chokehold
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All three name a close-quarters grip around someone's head or neck, but they differ in what the grip does and how learners meet them. A headlock traps the head and upper neck between an arm and the body; it is uncomfortable but not primarily designed to cut off breathing, and it is the everyday word in wrestling, schoolyard scuffles, and rough play between siblings. A chokehold deliberately presses on the throat or windpipe to restrict air, and is the term that appears in news reports about police restraint techniques. A stranglehold takes choking further by fully closing the airway, and is almost as common as a figurative term meaning total control, as in 'the company has a stranglehold on the market.' So: headlock for play and sport, chokehold for restraint that limits breathing, stranglehold for the strongest physical version and for metaphors about power.

headlock ↗chokeholdstranglehold ↗

Common collocations

Phrases

  • put someone in a headlock
  • break out of a headlock

Prepositions

  • in a headlock
  • out of a headlock

Etymology

Old EnglishEnglish

A straightforward compound of head + lock, where lock carries its older sense of 'a fastening grip that holds something in place.' English has used lock for wrestling holds since at least the seventeenth century; pairing it with head to name this specific grip becomes common in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century writing on wrestling and boxing, alongside related compounds like armlock and leglock.