Englishput the squeeze on
Meaning: To apply pressure on someone to do something; to force or coerce someone.
Example: “The landlord put the squeeze on us for two months' rent in advance.”
Origin: "Squeeze," for exerting real pressure on someone, especially to force compliance or extract something from them, is documented from as early as 1711 in exactly this figurative sense. The word's own root, through Middle English quaisen from Old English cwysan, meant simply to crush or squeeze physically, likely echoic of the sound or sensation itself. "Put the squeeze on" borrows that same literal image of physical compression — the way pressure forces liquid out of something soft, like juice from fruit — and applies it to social or financial pressure exerted until the target gives up money, information, or compliance they'd otherwise withhold.
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