choke

present singular third person chokes · participle present choking · participle past choked · past choked · alternative choak · alternative choake · alternative chock

1. intransitiveTo be unable to breathe because of obstruction of the windpipe (for instance food or other objects that go down the wrong way, or fumes or particles in the air that cause the throat to constrict).

   Ever since he choked on a bone, he has refused to eat fish.

   3 more examples

   Lenore began to choke with the fine dust and to feel her eyes smart and to see it settle on her hands and dress.

   1919, Zane Grey, chapter 6, in The Desert of Wheat, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 66

   See your brain - Choke, choke, choke Watch it drain - Choke, choke, choke See your greed - Choke, choke, choke Watch it breed - Choke, choke, choke Fake, you're falling down Choke, your neck is broken

   1998, “Choke”, in Igor Cavalera, Andreas Kisser (music), Against, performed by Sepultura, Track 2

   Passengers on the earliest railway services would not even have enjoyed the luxury of a platform, instead having to step up onto the waiting open top wagons, where they would experience a journey that left many choking on the plumes of smoke exhaled by the leading locomotive.

   2025 July 9, Oliver Wheeler, “Action stations...”, in RAIL, number 1039, page 68

2. transitiveTo prevent (someone) from breathing or talking by strangling or filling the windpipe.

   The collar of this shirt is too tight; it’s choking me.

   3 more examples

   With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder:

   1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene 1]

   Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 8:33

   The man became insane; he stood over me, choking me with one fist and beating me in the face with the other […]

   1918, Willa Cather, chapter 15, in My Ántonia, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, pages 282–283

   Synonyms: asphyxiate, strangle, suffocate, throttle

3. transitiveTo obstruct (a passage, etc.) by filling it up or clogging it.

   to choke a cave passage with boulders and mud

   4 more examples

   This was a Passage, so rugged, so uneven, and choaked with so many Thorns and Briars, that it was a melancholy Spectacle to behold the Pains and Difficulties which both Sexes suffered who walked through it.

   1709 January 14, Joseph Addison, “The lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff Esq.”, in The Tatler, volume 3, number 120, London, published 1712, page 31

   But at Christmas the pavements were crowded with overdressed shoppers from the country, the streets choked with slow but strident traffic.

   1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, Penguin, published 1992, Part 2, Chapter 4, p. 492

   There have been predictions that within a few years all roads within a 17-mile radius of the Airport will be choked.

   1962 April, “London Airport rail link”, in Modern Railways, page 222

   The waterfall is now a trickle, and the pool is choked with algae and drowned leaves and broken-off branches.

   2012, Tan Twan Eng, chapter 13, in The Garden of Evening Mists, New York: Weinstein Books, page 168

   Synonyms: block up, bung up, clog, congest, jam, obstruct, stop up

4. transitiveTo hinder or check, as growth, expansion, progress, etc.; to kill (a plant by robbing it of nutrients); to extinguish (fire by robbing it of oxygen).

   1697, John Dryden (translator), “The Fifth Pastoral,” lines 55-56, in The Works of Virgil, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 22, No fruitful Crop the sickly Fields return; But Oats and Darnel choak the rising Corn.

   3 more examples

   Now ’tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted; Suffer them now, and they’ll o’ergrow the garden And choke the herbs for want of husbandry.

   1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]

   And some [seeds] fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 13:7

   I have cut maize stalks or green plants with which he means to choke the flames.

   1998, Nuruddin Farah, chapter 3, in Secrets, Penguin, published 1999, page 67

   Synonyms: choke out, stifle

5. colloquialintransitiveTo perform badly at a crucial stage of a competition, especially when one appears to be clearly winning.

   He has a lot of talent, but he tends to choke under pressure.

   1 more example

   “I can’t say that I choked on those match points,” Williams said. “She literally played her best tennis ever on those shots.”

   2019 January 22, “1 Point Away, Serena Stunned by Pliskova at Australian Open”, in The New York Times

6. transitiveTo move one's fingers very close to the tip of a pencil, brush or other art tool.

   A brief tryout will demonstrate that the modified grip does indeed make it difficult to “choke” the pencil or apply excessive pressure to the paper.

   1973, Wayne Otto et al., chapter 13, in Corrective and Remedial Teaching, 2nd edition, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 361

7. transitiveball gamesTo hold the club or bat lower on the shaft in order to shorten one's swing.

   Take a grip with your right hand, slightly choked down from your normal grip.

   2014, Roger Fredericks, The Flexible Golf Swing, page 108

8. intransitiveTo be checked or stopped, as if by choking

   Speech choked in Eugene’s throat.

   1929, Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, New York: Modern Library, Part 3, Chapter 29, p. 413

   1 more example

   […] the words choked in his throat.

   1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter XVIII, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: stick

9. transitiveTo check or stop (an utterance or voice) as if by choking.

   Her laugh got choked by a sob.

   1905, William John Locke, chapter 20, in The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne

   4 more examples

   A hundred times fain he would have spoke, but still his rising Passion choak’d his Words;

   1684, Aphra Behn, “The Amours of Philander and Silvia”, in Love-Letters between a Noble-man and his Sister, London, page 277

   […] tears choked the utterance of the dame de compagnie, and she buried her crushed affections and her poor old red nose in her pocket handkerchief.

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 14, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC

   At that I opened my mouth to speak, and found a hoarse phlegm choked my voice.

   1896, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Chapter 9”, in The Island of Doctor Moreau (Heinemann’s Colonial Library of Popular Fiction; 52), London: William Heinemann, →OCLC; republished as The Island of Doctor Moreau: A Possibility, New York, N.Y.: Stone & Kimball, 1896, →OCLC

   Danny let out a soft, half-choked, trembling moan.

   1967, Chaim Potok, chapter 18, in The Chosen, New York: Ballantine, published 1982, page 282

10. intransitiveTo have a feeling of strangulation in one's throat as a result of passion or strong emotion.

    2007, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Wizard of the Crow, New York: Knopf Doubleday, Book 3, p. 435, Tajirika felt himself choking with anger. How dare those hussies interfere with his business?

    1 more example

    Grobstock began to choke with chagrin.

    1894, Israel Zangwill, chapter 2, in The King of Schnorrers, New York: Macmillan, page 48

11. transitiveTo give (someone) a feeling of strangulation as a result of passion or strong emotion.

    I shall run distracted. My rage choaks me.

    1773, Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, London: F. Newbery, act IV, page 80

    3 more examples

    […] I am very sensible how much the Gentlemen of Wit and Pleasure are apt to murmur, and be choqued at the Sight of so many daggled-tail Parsons, who happen to fall in their Way, and offend their Eyes […]

    1712, Jonathan Swift, “An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity”, in The Works of J.S., volume 1, Dublin: George Faulkner, published 1735, page 104

    And my remembrance of them both, choking me, I broke down […] and laid my face in my hands upon the table.

    1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 13, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC

    Charlotte made herself stiff, controlling sudden choking emotion.

    1971, Iris Murdoch, An Accidental Man, New York: Viking, page 42

12. transitiveTo say (something) with one’s throat constricted (due to emotion, for example).

    “The bastards!” he choked. “I hope they are all caught and hanged!”

    1995, Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance, London: Faber and Faber, published 1997, Epilogue, p. 583

    1 more example

    ‘There is the padre!’ Kim choked as bare-headed Father Victor sailed down upon them from the veranda.

    1901, Rudyard Kipling, chapter 6, in Kim

13. transitiveTo use the choke valve of (a vehicle) to adjust the air/fuel mixture in the engine.

    The engine caught, spluttered, and roared as Tom choked the car delicately.

    1939, John Steinbeck, chapter 26, in The Grapes of Wrath, New York: Viking, published 1962, page 492

14. intransitivefluid mechanicsTo reach a condition of maximum flowrate, due to the flow at the narrowest point of the duct becoming sonic (Ma = 1).
15. To make or install a choke, as in a cartridge, or in the bore of the barrel of a shotgun.

plural chokes · alternative choak · alternative choake · alternative chock

1. A control on a carburetor to adjust the air/fuel mixture when the engine is cold.

   1 more example

   Bond leapt for the Bentley, blessing the impulse which had made him drive it over after dinner. With the choke full out, the engine answered at once to the starter and the roar drowned the faltering words of the commissionaire who jumped aside as the rear wheels whipped gravel at his piped trouser-legs.

   1953, Ian Fleming, “Black Hare and Grey Hound”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 104

2. hobbiesIn wrestling, karate (etc.), a type of hold that can result in strangulation.
3. A constriction at the muzzle end of a shotgun barrel which affects the spread of the shot.
4. A partial or complete blockage (of boulders, mud, etc.) in a cave passage.
5. businessA choking coil.
6. A major mistake at a crucial stage of a competition because one is nervous, especially when one is winning.

plural chokes

1. The mass of immature florets in the centre of the bud of an artichoke.

   Once all the leaves are gone, a hairy little island will remain in the middle of the artichoke. This is the “choke.” A gentleman uses his knife and fork to slice it away, uncovering the delicious artichoke “heart” underneath.

   [2004, John Bridges, Bryan Curtis, A Gentleman at the Table, Thomas Nelson, →ISBN, page 60