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

Professional gardeners like to use their blowers at full throttle.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

Class 2 bikes can also be ridden by people of any age, but are equipped with a throttle and reach a maximum speed of 20 mph.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

He will probably do that at full throttle, too.

From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026

Because it’s liquid-fueled, “you can deep throttle it, you can turn it way down, you can turn it off, you can turn off and on an infinite number of times.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026

I could have slammed the boat into high gear and opened the throttle.

From "Red Kayak" by Priscilla Cummings

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

Beijing in response throttled the number of flights to the country and advised Chinese tourists to stay away.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 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

But that has been throttled since the war as Iran largely closed the strait, throwing global markets into turmoil and driving up oil prices.

From Barron's ● May 10, 2026

The government, sizing up an energy crisis as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz throttled Asia’s fuel supplies, wanted to know how quickly the firm could build more plants, Agrawal said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026

As a result, ships built and manned in Spain itself were able to sail to the West Indies; there was nothing equivalent to the Greenland bottleneck that had throttled Norse colonization.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

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

The bill would also establish a graduated response framework, allowing regulators to impose measures based on the severity of a threat, including throttling a model’s capabilities, limiting access, suspending operations or ordering a complete shutdown.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

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

From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026

Train wi-fi performed well just 1% of the time, with train companies criticised for using outdated technology and throttling internet speeds too much.

From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026

“You have no idea who I am,” I said, my anger throttling my words into a hiss.

From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia