choke

American  

[chohk] / tʃoʊk /

verb (used with object)

• chokes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• choked,
  past participle,  past
• choking
  present participle

1. to stop the breath of by squeezing or obstructing the windpipe; strangle; stifle.

2. to stop by or as if by strangling or stifling.

   The sudden wind choked his words.

3. to stop by filling; obstruct; clog.

   Grease choked the drain.

   Synonyms:

   plug, dam, block

4. to suppress (a feeling, emotion, etc.) (often followed by back ordown ).

   I managed to choke back my tears.

5. to fill chock-full.

   The storeroom was choked with furniture.

6. to seize (a log, felled tree, etc.) with a chain, cable, or the like, so as to facilitate removal.

7. to enrich the fuel mixture of (an internal-combustion engine) by diminishing the air supply to the carburetor.

8. Sports. to grip (a bat, racket, or the like) farther than usual from the end of the handle; shorten one's grip on (often followed byup ).

---

verb (used without object)

• chokes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• choked,
  past participle,  past
• choking
  present participle

1. to suffer from or as from strangling or suffocating.

   He choked on a piece of food.

2. to become obstructed, clogged, or otherwise stopped.

   The words choked in her throat.

noun

1. the act or sound of choking.

2. a mechanism by which the air supply to the carburetor of an internal-combustion engine can be diminished or stopped.

3. Machinery. any mechanism that, by blocking a passage, regulates the flow of air, gas, etc.

4. Electricity. choke coil.

5. a narrowed part, as in a chokebore.

6. the bristly upper portion of the receptacle of the artichoke.

verb phrase

1. choke up

   1. to become or cause to become speechless, as from the effect of emotion or stress.

      She choked up over the sadness of the tale.

   2. to become too tense or nervous to perform well.

      Our team began to choke up in the last inning.

2. choke off to stop or obstruct by or as by choking.

   to choke off a nation's fuel supply.

choke British  

/ tʃəʊk /

verb

1. (tr) to hinder or stop the breathing of (a person or animal), esp by constricting the windpipe or by asphyxiation

2. (intr) to have trouble or fail in breathing, swallowing, or speaking

3. (tr) to block or clog up (a passage, pipe, street, etc)

4. (tr) to retard the growth or action of

   the weeds are choking my plants

5. (tr) to suppress (emotion)

   she choked her anger

6. slang (intr) to die

7. (tr) to enrich the petrol-air mixture by reducing the air supply to (a carburettor, petrol engine, etc)

8. (intr) (esp in sport) to be seized with tension and fail to perform well

---

noun

1. the act or sound of choking

2. a device in the carburettor of a petrol engine that enriches the petrol-air mixture by reducing the air supply

3. any constriction or mechanism for reducing the flow of a fluid in a pipe, tube, etc

4. Also called: choke coil.  electronics an inductor having a relatively high impedance, used to prevent the passage of high frequencies or to smooth the output of a rectifier

5. the inedible centre of the head of an artichoke

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• interchoke
  verb (used with object)
• chokeable
  adjective
• unchokeable
  adjective
• unchoked
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• choking
  present
• choked
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• choke
  simple
• chokes
  simple
• have choked
  perfect
• has choked
  perfect
• am choking
  progressive
• are choking
  progressive
• is choking
  progressive
• have been choking
  perfect progressive
• has been choking
  perfect progressive

Past

• choked
  simple
• had choked
  perfect
• was choking
  progressive
• were choking
  progressive
• had been choking
  perfect progressive

Future

• will choke
  simple
• will have choked
  perfect
• will be choking
  progressive
• will have been choking
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of choke

1150–1200; Middle English choken, cheken, variant of achoken, acheken, Old English ācēocian to suffocate; akin to Old Norse kōk gullet

Explanation

When you choke, you are suddenly unable to breathe, often because something is stuck in your throat. Your dad's rude joke might make you gasp and choke on your grilled cheese sandwich. You might choke in a smoky room, or choke on a grape that's lodged halfway down your throat. In either case, your body can't get enough oxygen. People also choke up with emotion, figuratively choking on their sobs. Likewise, a child might complain, "This scarf chokes me!" — it's uncomfortably tight, but he's not literally unable to breathe. When the weeds in your garden outnumber the vegetables, you can also say they choke, or crowd, your plants.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

choke chokes choked choking

The choke point used to handle roughly 12% of the world’s seaborne oil flows before the war.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

By forcing ships to turn back from the narrow Bab El Mandeb strait, they have threatened to choke off the main maritime route from Europe to Asia.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

If you miss your monthly payment to Amazon Oxygen, will you choke to death?

From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026

Hundreds of actors and directors have signed a letter opposing the merger, warning it would choke production in an industry already battered by years of consolidation and cost-cutting.

From Barron's ● Jul. 13, 2026

He thinks if he can choke the flames while they’re young, he can prevent a wildfire, maybe save the house.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

It raises the cost of capital, delays investment and chokes off the very capacity needed to relieve bottlenecks.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 6, 2026

The flea-sized psyllid bites the leaves and transmits the disease, which slowly chokes out the tree’s vascular system from the inside, taking years to finally show itself.

From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2026

She beams as she talks about the partner who "brought her spark back", but chokes down tears as she explains that in a few days Barry may be gone.

From BBC ● Feb. 13, 2026

He would also condemn McLaren to one of the biggest chokes in the history of the sport.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 1, 2025

He chokes here, on the word hero, he spits it out like it tastes bad.

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse

But the good news, or the kind-of good news, or the “why in God’s name did this take so long” news, is that Infantino has finally choked on an overdose of hubris.

From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026

“I watched him have three seizures. That ICE agent could have choked on his tongue had I not been there.”

From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026

But if you revisit interviews Donald did after retiring, you’ll notice how often and how quickly he’d get choked up.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026

The area serves as a bedroom community for employment centers in Fort Myers and Naples, so its main thoroughfares are choked with outbound traffic in the morning and inbound traffic in the afternoon.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

“Well, well,” he said, and seemed too choked up to say more.

From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood

"These guidelines are tantamount to choking international media in an increasingly shrinking space," said political commentator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

But between parasitic infections and the wildfire smoke that’s currently choking U.S. cities, maybe you’d prefer to spend much of this weekend inside.

From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2026

Workers sweated in choking heat and pupils stayed home on Tuesday as an early-summer heatwave smothered much of Europe, sparking health warnings.

From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026

The regulated toxic substance is corrosive to the skin, eyes and lungs, and high levels of exposure can lead to choking, burns and death, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026

Great gouts of smoke filled the air, acrid and choking.

From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell

Related Words

• clog
• congest
• drown
• fill
• gag
• gasp
• kill
• stifle
• strangle
• suffocate