throttle

American  

[throt-l] / ˈθrɒt l /

noun

• throttles
  plural

1. Also called throttle lever.  a lever, pedal, handle, etc., for controlling or manipulating a throttle valve.

2. throttle valve.

3. the throat, gullet, or windpipe, as of a horse.

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verb (used with object)

• throttles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• throttled,
  past participle,  past
• throttling
  present participle

1. to stop the breath of by compressing the throat; strangle.

2. to choke or suffocate in any way.

3. to compress by fastening something tightly around.

4. to silence or check as if by choking.

   His message was throttled by censorship.

5. Machinery.

   1. to obstruct or check the flow of (a fluid), as to control the speed of an engine.

   2. to reduce the pressure of (a fluid) by passing it from a smaller area to a larger one.

idioms

1. at full throttle, at maximum speed.

throttle British  

/ ˈθrɒtəl /

noun

1. Also called: throttle valve.  any device that controls the quantity of fuel or fuel and air mixture entering an engine

2. an informal or dialect word for throat

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verb

1. to kill or injure by squeezing the throat

2. to suppress

   to throttle the press

3. to control or restrict (a flow of fluid) by means of a throttle valve

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• throttler
  noun
• unthrottled
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• throttles
  plural

Participles

• throttling
  present
• throttled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• throttle
  simple
• throttles
  simple
• have throttled
  perfect
• has throttled
  perfect
• am throttling
  progressive
• are throttling
  progressive
• is throttling
  progressive
• have been throttling
  perfect progressive
• has been throttling
  perfect progressive

Past

• throttled
  simple
• had throttled
  perfect
• was throttling
  progressive
• were throttling
  progressive
• had been throttling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will throttle
  simple
• will have throttled
  perfect
• will be throttling
  progressive
• will have been throttling
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of throttle

1350–1400; (v.) Middle English throtelen, frequentative of throten to cut the throat of (someone), strangle, derivative of throat; (noun) probably diminutive of Middle English throte throat; compare German Drossel

Explanation

The throttle of an engine controls the fuel going in, and if you're going at full throttle, you'd better hang onto your hat. You can think of a throttle as a throat, and the two words may be related. But as with a throat, if you block a throttle, something bad is likely to happen. You can throttle your car — cut off the air to the engine, also known as applying the choke — and you might stall it out. You can also throttle a person — the image is that you grab the person by the throat and cut off his air. It's much better to use throttle figuratively: when you crushed your opponent at tennis, you could say "you throttled her" — but nobody really got hurt.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

throttle throttles throttled throttling

"Hyperscalers had attracted much of that buying, while the supply chain remained one of the cleanest expressions of the belief that the AI capex machine would keep running at full throttle," he added.

From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026

Dad was in charge of the throttle and brake, his son would control the rest.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

The eight-speed transmission shuffles up to overdrive as soon as the throttle pressure slackens.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026

Class 2 includes a throttle, but is also capped at 20 miles per hour.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026

If he pulled the throttle back out, die engine would slow down and the plane would go down.

From "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen

They have throttles and much more powerful motors and may only be ridden legally on private land with the owner's permission.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

Plus: AI build-out fuels warehouse demand; war throttles another chokepoint: the Black Sea.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

But if an internet service provider throttles traffic in response to data caps, a VPN can’t stop that.

From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026

“You never know what the body throttles back,” Treinen said earlier in camp.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2026

They opened their throttles to full speed, and even then they were only just able to keep up.

From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl

In response, Beijing throttled tourist flights to Japan from China and squeezed Japanese firms’ access to Chinese rare earths, critical components in manufacturing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026

About five miles separate Agoura and Westlake high schools, but there seemed to be a great deal more distance between them Friday night, as host Westlake throttled the Chargers 38-7 in a nonleague game.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

The gap ballooned early in the Iran war as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz throttled exports of diesel and oil suitable for refining it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026

Persian Gulf nations that throttled oil production will need time to restart operations and ships may wait to attempt passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026

Nina Yegorova-Arefjeva, an armorer for the 46th Guards, said that “sometimes, when our planes were throttled back gliding in over the target, the Germans would cry out, ‘Night witches!’, and our crews could hear them.”

From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein

The same thing is happening at Iran’s land borders with Turkey, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, dealing Tehran a self-inflicted blow and throttling trade through its few remaining economic release valves.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026

But China’s throttling back of oil imports and its use of hidden reserves to calm global crude prices were also surprises.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026

We evaluated streaming performance and P2P behavior by running downloads and streaming concurrently to observe throttling and buffering.

From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026

On Friday, just two ships passed through the narrow waterway, which has seen traffic collapse, throttling shipments of everything from wheat and rice to oil and gas.

From Barron's ● Apr. 10, 2026

It was not as though he was really surprised, thought Harry, as he wrestled with a thorny vine intent upon throttling him; he had had an inkling that this might happen sooner or later.

From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling