strong-arm adj.
1. violent, used of a person who gets things done through threats of, as well as actual, physical violence.
 | in strong-arm man [below] . | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Artie (1963) 63: He would n’t go out with a piece o’ lead pipe or do any o’ that strong-arm work. | |
| World of Graft 18: I had been inclined to believe that the ‘strong-arm’ crimes were committed by men who were transients in the city. | |
| Knocking the Neighbors 121: He began grabbing Public Service Utilities by Strong-Arm methods. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Leave it to Psmith (1993) 517: If you start any strong-arm work in front of everybody like the way you say, won’t they ...? | |
| ‘The Snatching of Bookie Bob’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 120: Johnny Brannigan, the strong-arm cop. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Eve. Teleg. 2 Sept. 8/4: Armed Bandits in Jamaica Streets [...] Resentment is caused by the strong-arm methods of followers of Alexander Bustamente, trade union leader, who threaten leaders of other politucal parties. | |
| Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 131: A dangerous man, probably in one of the strong-arm rackets. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 229: strong arm stuff Using violence. strong arm work Where violence is used. | |
| Baltimore Sun (MD) 27 Jan. 15/1: Ten thousand students seized the Madrid radio [...] to broadcast complaints against strongarm tactics used to break up their demonstrations. | |
| (con. 1940s) Autobiog. (1968) 213: The strong-arm thugs were bluffing. | |
| Gonif 121: I may have been straightening out, but they knew my reputation for strong-arm tactics. | |
| Wiseguy (2001) 30: The Vario thugs did most of the strong-arm work for the rest of the Lucchese crime family. | |
| (con. early 1950s) L.A. Confidential 17: You’re not one of the guys. You’re not a strongarm type. | |
| White Boy Shuffle 84: A strong-arm man-child for a loan shark. | |
| ‘Jungletown Jihad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 343: Pellegrino: strong-arm goon, shakedown sharpie. | |
| Last Kind Words 38: Danny at least had the good sense to appear sorry for his strong-arm tactics. | |
| (con. 1991-94) City of Margins 11: They mostly do strong-arm stuff for him, collections and whatnot. |
2. physical effort, other than in the context of violence.
| ‘Mob Murder’ in Gangland Stories Mar. 🌐 I struggled to pull him back over the sill. He wasn’t so very heavy, but I’m not built for strong-arm stuff of any kind. |
In compounds
a thug, a hoodlum, a gangster.
| Butte Miner (MT) 14 July 4/2: Ed Harris, a first-class pimp and strong-arm man. | |
| Inter-Ocean (Chicago) 6 Mar. 8/1: ‘You can’t get reports of burglaries and hold-ups now, and you will never know what the strong-arm workers are doing’. | |
| Shields Dly Gaz. 9 Aug. 5/5: ‘My good man [...] why don’t you go?’ ‘Go! go!’ gasped the ‘grafter.’ ‘With that big strong-arm guy that I swiped the watch from laying for me outside? I guess not’. | |
| World of Graft 17: The freedom with which the ‘hold-up’ and ‘strong-arm’ men conduct their operations. | |
| Life In Sing Sing 257: Strong Arm Guy. Highway robber. | |
| Bowery Life [ebook] Between you an’ me dere's strong arm guys in odder places dan de Bowery, only dey work diffrunt. | |
| Commercialized Prostitution in N.Y. City 71: A crowd of pimps, gamblers, pickpockets, and ‘strong arm guys’ attended a dance. | |
| Vocab. Criminal Sl. 15: arm man, [...] Current amongst ‘heavyweights.’ A strong arm man; a holdup; a highway robber. | |
| Gay-cat 113: ‘A strong-armer,’ breathed the Kid in a cold whisper of awe. [...] ‘Sure, a strong-armer [...] Thet’s Black Finn, Strong-arm hisself.’. | |
| Chicago May (1929) 111: He did not know what to make of the motley gathering. There they were, thugs, strong-arm men, sneaks, second-story workers, dips, moll-buzzers, confidence-men, safe crackers, beggars and people who looked like the Lord’s anointed. | |
| Gilt Kid 31: The blokes who’re coming out on top are the strong-arm guys who can grab all they want for themselves and freeze on to it when they’ve got it. | |
| Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 92: The pseudo Al Capone with his two strong-arm men. | |
| Street Corner Society (1955) 120: There’s the strong-arm men, they protect the business when it gets going. | |
| Man with the Golden Arm 286: Picturing him as some oversized strongarmer. | |
| One Lonely Night 155: So out comes the strong-arm boys. | |
| (con. 1920s) Hoods (1953) 189: He’s the politician’s ace strong-arm guy. | |
| USA Confidential 261: The machines come from Chicago, which also supplies financing and strong-arm men. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Crime in S. Afr. 107: A ‘goon’, ’strong-arm man’, or ‘pretty boy’ is a criminal who employs violence. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Holy Smoke 62: Now wouldn’t it be up to the vineyard boss to come along with his strong-arm men and do these larrikins over? | |
| Godfather 140: His record showed his citations for gun duels with [...] strong-arm protection guys. [Ibid.] 421: A notorious pimp, dope pusher and strong-arm artist. | |
| Street Players 20: Ever since they were childhood friends, Charles was a strong-arm man. | |
| Indep. Rev. 13 July 8: A player could enter only after being given the once-over by a strong-arm man at the door. | |
| Intractable [ebook] A couple of the heavies and strong-arm boys. |
1. coercion, violence.
| Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 18 Oct. 57/6: Yes, sir, they’re noticeing [sic] the strong-arm stuff of the jockeys now. | |
| Little Caesar (1932) 97: Why the strong arm stuff, Rico? | |
| Never Come Morning (1988) 8: Not strong-arm stuff, Barber? Don’t make me do that no more. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 229: strong arm stuff Using violence. strong arm work Where violence is used. | |
| Look Back in Anger Act III: And if you start trying any strong-arm stuff, you’re out. | |
| Chicago Trib. 6 Oct. 3/1: He is arrested and released after several hours but only after being subjected to ‘strongarm stuff’. | |
| All things Bright and Beautiful (1998) 149: Horace Dawson, a tiny frail man of about eighty who couldn’t be expected to do any strong-arm stuff. | |
| Silent Partner 226: I checked the brother’s sheet — drunk and disorderly, lewd conduct, larceny, the strong-arm stuff. | |
| Distant land of My Father 268: They did a lot of strong-arm stuff, holding people up and threatening them if they didn’t pay protection money. |
2. physical exertion in a non-coercive context.
| Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 30 June 49/1: Picinich pulled some strong-arm stuff, firing the ball far over Judge’s head into the circus seats. | |
| Oregon Dly Jrnl (Portland, OR) 15 Mar. 5/4: A box of blacking, a brush and a little strong-arm stuff is our answer. |
1. (US Und.) a thuggish, violent woman, very often a street thief or the madame of a brothel.
| L.A. Times 3 May 5/4: Mrs Adler [...] was well known to the police having been in her younger days a notorious thief and strong-arm woman. | |
| Inter-Ocean (Chicago) 21 May 1/7: This notorious ‘strongarm woman’ was under indictment for garrotting and robbing a victim on the levee. | |
| Indianapolis Jrnl (IN) 29 Nov. 7/1: Nannie Sedan [...] is accused of [...] being the ‘strong-arm woman’ who robbed Morris Seloff. | |
| Wash. Post (DC) 13 Feb. 39/2: The ‘strong-arm woman’ [...] instantly shows her claws and ‘sticks up’ her victim. | |
| L.A. Times 11 Nov. 19/8: Strong-Arm Gal. Evelyn Scoville, who says she is ‘just a strong-arm woman from Chicago’ has been arrested for stealing an automobile. | |
| (con. 1890s) Gangs of Chicago (2002) 122: Kitty Adams, a white strong-arm woman who for almost a dozen years was known as the Terror of State Street. | |
| Lubbock Eve. Jrnl (TX) 18 Oct. 4/4: A strongarm woman bandit today slugged a Kansas City man unconscious and robbed him of $90. |
2. (US und.) the practitioner of the badger game under badger n.1
| St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) 18 July 6/1: The strong-arm woman who caresses the man [...] while her confederate takes everything of value in his pockets. |