Green’s Dictionary of Slang

yoke v.

[SE yoke, a collar placed across the neck]

1. (US) to murder by strangulation or by cutting someone’s throat from behind.

[US]Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 94: Yoke To kill someone by grasping his throat and choking him.

2. to rob while choking or strangling the victim, either with a rope or stick; one person does the yoking, the other rifles the victim’s pockets.

[US]M. Braly It’s Cold Out There (2005) 196: How easy it would be to yoke the clerk [...] and empty the till.
[US](con. 1985–90) P. Bourjois In Search of Respect 36: It started when two crackheads [...] yoked this girl. They beat her down and took her jewelry.
[US](con. 1946) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 4: I got yoked, that’s all. Some guys jumped me.

In phrases

yoke together (v.) (also wear the yoke)

of a couple, to join in sexual intercourse.

J. Phillips [trans.] Cervantes Don Quixote 497: I met this Woman, and presently the Devil entered my Codpeice [...] his Temptations were so strong, that he forc’d us to Yoak together, and I think I gave her that which would ha’ given any reasonable Woman content.
H. Wilson Memoirs V 136: [song lurocs] carlet is my cloak, / Like your blushes, glowing, / Come, and wear the yoke, / With a dog so knowing.