Word.ws English Dictionary

twisted someone's arm

twisted someone's arm is the simple past of twist someone's arm.

Meaning of twist someone's arm

Verb

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).
    • I twist his arm, a snap signaling when it breaks. His screams reverberate in the tiny apartment.2013, Justina Ireland, Vengeance Bound, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 295
  2. (figuratively) To coerce, force, or cajole.
    • They had to twist his arm, but they got him to join the project.

Questions about twisted someone's arm

What is twisted someone's arm the simple past of?
Twisted someone's arm is the simple past of twist someone's arm.

Words near twisted someone's arm in the dictionary

  1. twisted in the wind
  2. Twisted Nematic
  3. twisted pair
  4. twisted pairs
  5. twisted perspective
  6. twisted someone's arm
  7. twisted someone's words
  8. twisted the knife
  9. twisted the knife in the wound
  10. twisted up
  11. twisted-stalk

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: twisted someone's arm (page history and authors); twist someone's arm (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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