1. A curved timber with attachments which is used for coupling draft animals; such as oxen, usually having a bow at each end which fit on the neck of each animal .
2. A wooden bar or frame used to join draft animals at the heads or necks so they could pull a plow or a heavy load together.
3. A bind or tie that keeps people together, positively or negatively; such as the yoke of love or the yoke of marriage.
4. If two or more people or things are yoked together, they are forced to be closely linked or joined with each other, or the yoking of an unhappy situation: "He was yoked to his job because he couldn't find employment in any other occupation."
5. Something which causes people to be treated cruelly and unfairly; especially, by taking away their freedom: "The people of this country have struggled to free themselves from the yoke of foreign rule and the yoke of tyranny."
6. An oppressive force or influence; a crushing burden or weight; such as, under the yoke of heavy taxes to support a government's inefficient economic policies.
7. In medicine, a tissue connecting two structures.
8. Etymology: "yoke" was developed from Old English geoc, "yoke"; from Latin jugum, "joining, yoke"; related to jungere, "to join".

The etymological idea underlying yoke is of "joining"; including the "joining of two animals together", or the joining of people; as, "they were joined together by the yoke of friendship" or "they were yoked together in marriage".