choke
Americanverb (used with object)
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to stop the breath of by squeezing or obstructing the windpipe; strangle; stifle.
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to stop by or as if by strangling or stifling.
The sudden wind choked his words.
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to stop by filling; obstruct; clog.
Grease choked the drain.
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to suppress (a feeling, emotion, etc.) (often followed by back ordown ).
I managed to choke back my tears.
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to fill chock-full.
The storeroom was choked with furniture.
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to seize (a log, felled tree, etc.) with a chain, cable, or the like, so as to facilitate removal.
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to enrich the fuel mixture of (an internal-combustion engine) by diminishing the air supply to the carburetor.
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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)
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to suffer from or as from strangling or suffocating.
He choked on a piece of food.
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to become obstructed, clogged, or otherwise stopped.
The words choked in her throat.
noun
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the act or sound of choking.
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a mechanism by which the air supply to the carburetor of an internal-combustion engine can be diminished or stopped.
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Machinery. any mechanism that, by blocking a passage, regulates the flow of air, gas, etc.
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Electricity. choke coil.
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a narrowed part, as in a chokebore.
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the bristly upper portion of the receptacle of the artichoke.
verb phrase
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choke up
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to become or cause to become speechless, as from the effect of emotion or stress.
She choked up over the sadness of the tale.
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to become too tense or nervous to perform well.
Our team began to choke up in the last inning.
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choke off to stop or obstruct by or as by choking.
to choke off a nation's fuel supply.
verb
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(tr) to hinder or stop the breathing of (a person or animal), esp by constricting the windpipe or by asphyxiation
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(intr) to have trouble or fail in breathing, swallowing, or speaking
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(tr) to block or clog up (a passage, pipe, street, etc)
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(tr) to retard the growth or action of
the weeds are choking my plants
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(tr) to suppress (emotion)
she choked her anger
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slang (intr) to die
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(tr) to enrich the petrol-air mixture by reducing the air supply to (a carburettor, petrol engine, etc)
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(intr) (esp in sport) to be seized with tension and fail to perform well
noun
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the act or sound of choking
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a device in the carburettor of a petrol engine that enriches the petrol-air mixture by reducing the air supply
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any constriction or mechanism for reducing the flow of a fluid in a pipe, tube, etc
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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
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the inedible centre of the head of an artichoke
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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chokesimple
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chokessimple
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have chokedperfect
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has chokedperfect
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am chokingprogressive
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are chokingprogressive
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is chokingprogressive
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have been chokingperfect progressive
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has been chokingperfect progressive
Past
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chokedsimple
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had chokedperfect
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was chokingprogressive
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were chokingprogressive
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had been chokingperfect progressive
Future
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.
Vocabulary lists containing choke
Common Five-letter Words for Wordle, List 3
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"When Cultures Meet"
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for January 22–January 28, 2022
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
If you miss your monthly payment to Amazon Oxygen, will you choke to death?
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
They just want to rally together for the final time to choke out one last laugh.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
Hundreds of actors and directors have signed a letter opposing the merger, warning it will choke production in an industry already battered by years of consolidation and cost-cutting.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
Beijing’s move to choke off the supply spurred companies to develop new products that could potentially circumvent Chinese sources.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
Frank flushed and made a sort of jerking motion forward, then fell back, like a dog that suddenly remembered his choke collar.
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
Swap out your air filter: A clogged filter chokes airflow, forcing your AC to guzzle more power to do the same job.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 29, 2026
Mr. Salam chokes up as he remembers his father: “He drove a livery cab, and then he was a bookkeeper. He did all these different jobs.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 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
Each winter, thick smog chokes Delhi and its 30 million residents.
From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2025
He looks at me and shrugs, then chokes completely and misses the windmill.
From "Please Ignore Vera Dietz" by A.S. King
“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
Then the Strait of Hormuz closed and choked off the world’s most important artery.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
Another customer got choked up looking at the debris of the business Sunday evening as she told ABC7 how the owner had been there for her.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
One of them, Chief Justice John Roberts, became audibly choked up while paying tribute to Breyer from the bench in April 2022.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
“What is in tonight’s stew, Mrs. Wigginbottom?” choked Mr. Slammer, his beardless face crinkled like a prune.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
Barrels of chemicals and partially finished product had been left in the shed as evidence, still emitting choking vapours when AFP visited.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 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
Of the 150 unsafe products it found, more than a third were designed to feed a baby from a bottle with little or no assistance despite an "obvious" risk of choking, Which? said.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
As a result of the physical exertion, the former chef claims that she “became dizzy, began choking and gasping for air, and required assistance from security personnel, who intervened by providing water and aid.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
The miniature storm swirled and stood before us like a charmed snake, flicking our hair into our faces, wrapping it around our necks, choking us—stealing our breaths.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
