put the squeeze on

Like their American counterparts, Russian police operate on a system of quotas, and to meet those demands a common tactic was to catch a low-level seller or user, then put the squeeze on them till they turn in their buddies.

Did the NFL conspire to put the squeeze on its biggest fans, driving up the price of DirecTV’s “Sunday Ticket” package so subscribers would be forced to pay top dollar to watch the full array of Sunday games?

The network has been grappling with declining ratings in recent years, as cord-cutting and disaffected viewers have put the squeeze on its viewing levels.

Going after universities was the spear tip of the Ron DeSantis approach to governance in Florida, using ginned-up, dubious controversies about critical race theory to crack down on the institutional independence of the state’s higher education system and to put the squeeze on its teachers unions.

“Grubhub has built this vast marketplace through practices that mislead consumers and restaurants and put the squeeze on the company’s delivery drivers,” the lawsuit says.