throttle

plural throttles

1. A valve that regulates the supply of fuel-air mixture to an internal combustion engine and thus controls its speed; a similar valve that controls the air supply to an engine.
2. The lever or pedal that controls this valve.

   To my unpractised eye, the undulations in the track were quite imperceptible, but the engineer's hand on the throttle was never still.

   1961 July, J. Geoffrey Todd, “Impressions of railroading in the United States: Part Two”, in Trains Illustrated, page 425

   Synonyms: accelerator, gas pedal, gas

3. archaicanatomyThe windpipe or trachea.

   From the cabin came that horrible song: "Here's to the feet wot have walked the plank. ⁠Yo ho! for the dead man's throttle."

   1915, Russell Thorndike, chapter XXXVII, in Doctor Syn

   2 more examples

   Then up got Peg, and round the house gan scuttle, / In search of goods her customer to nail, / Until the Sultaun strain'd his princely throttle, / And hollow'd,—"Ma'am, that is not what I ail.["]

   1817 (date written), Walter Scott, “[Songs and Miscellanies.] Search after Happiness; or, The Quest of Sultaun Solimaun”, in The Poetical Works of Walter Scott, Esq. […], volume X, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Company] for Arch[ibald] Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; and John Murray, →OCLC, stanza XIX, pages 235–236

   Nor took a punch nor given a swing, / But just soaked deady round the ring / Until their brains and bloods were foul / Enough to make their throttles howl, […]

   1911, John Masefield, The Everlasting Mercy, London: Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd., page 7

present singular third person throttles · participle present throttling · participle past throttled · past throttled

1. transitiveTo control or adjust the speed of (an engine).
2. transitiveTo cut back on the speed of (an engine, person, organization, network connection, etc.).
3. transitiveTo strangle or choke someone.

   Grant him this, and the Parliament hath no more freedom than if it sat in his noose, which, when he pleases to draw together with one twitch of his negative, shall throttle a whole nation, to the wish of Caligula, in one neck.

   1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC

4. intransitiveTo have the throat obstructed so as to be in danger of suffocation; to choke; to suffocate.
5. intransitiveTo breathe hard, as when nearly suffocated.
6. transitiveTo utter with breaks and interruption, in the manner of a person half suffocated.

   I have seen them shiver and look pale, Make periods in the midst of sentences, Throttle their practised accent in their fears.

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, 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 V, scene i]