choke

[ chohk ]
See synonyms for choke on Thesaurus.com
verb (used with object),choked, chok·ing.
  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.

  1. to stop by filling; obstruct; clog: Grease choked the drain.

  2. to suppress (a feeling, emotion, etc.) (often followed by back or down): I managed to choke back my tears.

  3. to fill chock-full: The storeroom was choked with furniture.

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

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

  6. 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 by up).

verb (used without object),choked, chok·ing.
  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.

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

  2. Electricity. choke coil.

  3. a narrowed part, as in a chokebore.

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

Verb Phrases
  1. choke off, to stop or obstruct by or as by choking: to choke off a nation's fuel supply.

  2. choke up,

    • to become or cause to become speechless, as from the effect of emotion or stress: She choked up over the sadness of the tale.

    • to become too tense or nervous to perform well: Our team began to choke up in the last inning.

Origin of choke

1
1150–1200; Middle English choken,cheken, variant of achoken, acheken,Old English ācēocian to suffocate; akin to Old Norse kōk gullet

Other words for choke

Other words from choke

  • choke·a·ble, adjective
  • in·ter·choke, verb (used with object), in·ter·choked, in·ter·chok·ing.
  • un·choke·a·ble, adjective
  • un·choked, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

British Dictionary definitions for choke

choke

/ (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

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

  2. (tr) to retard the growth or action of: the weeds are choking my plants

  3. (tr) to suppress (emotion): she choked her anger

  4. (intr) slang to die

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

  6. (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

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

  2. 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

  3. the inedible centre of the head of an artichoke

Origin of choke

1
Old English ācēocian, of Germanic origin; related to cheek

Derived forms of choke

  • chokeable, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012