lump in one's throat

alternative lump to one's throat

1. idiomaticStrong emotion, either happy or sad, causing someone to be on the verge of crying; a sensation of tightness in the throat associated herewith.

   After hearing his story I could hardly speak for the lump in my throat.

   1 more example

   There was a lump in Katie Hayward’s throat as she spoke about the emotional impact of the thefts that have cast a shadow over Britain’s beekeepers. “The heartbreaking thing is that it’s a very close community. The fact that one beekeeper does this to another is the hardest thing of all,” she says.

   2017 September 23, “From north Wales to Norfolk, distraught beekeepers ask: who’s stealing our hives?”, in The Observer