choke up

present singular third person chokes up · participle present choking up · participle past choked up · past choked up

1. intransitiveTo (temporarily) lose one's power of speech, because of strong emotion.

   Hearing that song always makes me choke up.

   1 more example

   The point overlooking the sea has beautiful scenery. It's over that away. Such a beautiful place gets me all choked up.

   1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System

2. transitiveTo cause (a person) temporarily to lose the power of speech, because of strong emotion.

   It chokes me up to think about how he died.

3. imperativeintransitiveoftenTo cease talking.
4. figurativelysometimestransitiveTo block up; to cause something to be blocked.

   The bodies choked up the entrance, barring the egress of those behind.

   1904, “Chicago's Awful Theater Horror”, in Memorial Publishing Co., page 42

   1 more example

   "[…] All the leading entrances to the station, all the platforms within and all the passages without, were absolutely choked up with men and women and children, and hundreds of them could not get away until midnight."

   1960 April 28, M. D. Greville and G. O. Holt, “Railway Development in Preston—3”, in Railway Magazine, pages 277, 1862 report in the Preston Chronicle

5. intransitiveball gamesTo hold the bat higher (farther from the knob) than is normal.