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.

---

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

---

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

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026

The film has a propulsive rhythm to it, a relentlessness, even as Wilde and editors Yorgos Mavropsaridis and Anthony Boys know when to ease off the throttle and take it easy for a bit.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026

In the early races, this led to unusual behaviour, such as drivers lifting off the throttle and coasting on qualifying laps, as well as recovering energy while on full throttle.

From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026

VPNs encrypt traffic, making it difficult for internet service providers to detect and throttle specific activities, such as streaming.

From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026

Somkit finally rammed the throttle forward, and the taxi leaped through the water so fast that it nearly threw Pong over backward.

From "A Wish in the Dark" by Christina Soontornvat

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

While the team has yet to create a fully untethered model -- Aubin says they are halfway there -- the current iteration "absolutely throttles the competition, in terms of their force output."

From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2023

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

From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl

No protest roadblocks remained standing in Bolivia on Tuesday, the government said, as it deployed the army to quell weeks-long demonstrations that had throttled roads nationwide.

From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 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

That throttled supply means property prices -- and therefore rents -- make up an unaffordable proportion of many people's income.

From Barron's ● Jun. 7, 2026

Traffic through the main Dubai airport, once the world’s busiest for international travelers, was throttled for weeks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026

The pilots throttled back the engines and all nine helicopters landed safely on the great yellow wasteland.

From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl

Privacy A VPN’s raison d’être: encrypting your traffic to mask your internet browsing from your ISP and prevent it from throttling your connection.

From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2026

The company has faced a computing power crunch that has led to outages, throttling and slower performance for its Claude AI model.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026

He’s also noted that open-source large language models with capabilities catching up to leading models may “offset” usage throttling.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 18, 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

He was white as the moon and shaking so hard it was as if some outside force were throttling him.

From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff