You can think of a hand closed around a throat. The person is still standing and still there, but no air gets through and nothing can be done. Everything the word does grows out of that one picture: whatever is held is not gone, it simply cannot act any more.
可以想成一隻手圈住脖子。人還站在那裡，卻沒辦法呼吸，也沒辦法動。這個字的用法都能從這個畫面看出來：被抓住的一方還在，只是什麼都做不了。也因為畫面是一隻手，英文才會說 break（扳開）或 tighten（收緊）。
From the word’s history
The source gives the word as strangle + hold — literally the kind of hold that strangles. The picture in the word is therefore its own history.
來源資料寫這個字由 strangle（勒住脖子）加 hold（抓法）組成，字面就是「會讓人窒息的那種抓法」。所以這個字的畫面和它的來源是同一件事。
Wiktionary entry for stranglehold, etymology: “From strangle + hold.” (packet ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1215552132:5338)
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