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

When the bike is rolling-idling and coasting, the deactivation cycling is noticeable; throttle tip-in seems just a bit flat.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

California law caps pedal-assisted e-bikes at 28 mph and throttle models at 20 mph, but Amazon had continued selling bikes capable of exceeding 40 mph despite the risks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026

For example, how they enter the corner, when they turn in, how they turn in, how they operate the throttle and brakes on corner entry and so on.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

Even as I was falling in love—full throttle, intense, can’t-erase-that-goofy-smile love—I didn’t really register what was happening.

From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman

But Europe can ill afford to anger China in case it throttles supplies of rare earth minerals that are vital for the continent's industrial sector.

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

A quick search of online marketplaces reveals all sorts of modifications on offer, often shipped from eastern Europe, including motorbike-style twist grip throttles which allow the rider to accelerate without pedalling.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 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

The short-term impact of opening the fiscal, monetary and credit throttles is easy to predict: rapid growth.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 14, 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

She escaped the control of her hard-driving father by marrying, only to see her creative life throttled as she competed for piano time with her husband.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

The NBA has now throttled the team with sanctions.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026

How else to explain those tech CEOs who usually can’t get enough change suddenly wanting it throttled?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

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

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

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

AI providers are hiking prices and throttling usage amid real-capacity constraints, while “tokenmaxxing” is starting to chew up IT budgets, according to O’Regan.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 18, 2026

By the next morning, gray clouds scuttled over the sea, muffling the sound of the waves and throttling hope of a sea breeze.

From "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt