choke

Alternative forms

• choak (obsolete)
• choake (obsolete)
• chock (dialectal)

Verb

choke (third-person singular simple present chokes, present participle choking, simple past and past participle choked)

1. (intransitive) To 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.

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

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

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

     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

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

   Synonyms: asphyxiate, strangle, suffocate, throttle

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

   • 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]:

     With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder:

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

     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.

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

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

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

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

   to choke a cave passage with boulders and mud

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

     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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

4. (transitive) To 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).

   Synonyms: choke out, stifle

   • 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]:

     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.

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

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

   • 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.

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

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

5. (intransitive, colloquial) To 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.

   • 2021, The Milwaukee Brewers choked in the playoffs:
   • 2019 January 22, “1 Point Away, Serena Stunned by Pliskova at Australian Open”, in The New York Times:

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

6. (transitive) To move one's fingers very close to the tip of a pencil, brush or other art tool.
   • 1973, Wayne Otto et al., chapter 13, in Corrective and Remedial Teaching‎, 2nd edition, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 361:

     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.

7. (golf, baseball, transitive) To hold the club or bat lower on the shaft in order to shorten one's swing.
   • 2014, Roger Fredericks, The Flexible Golf Swing, page 108:

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

8. (intransitive) To be checked or stopped, as if by choking

   Synonym: stick

   • 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:

     […] the words choked in his throat.

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

     Speech choked in Eugene’s throat.

9. (transitive) To check or stop (an utterance or voice) as if by choking.
   • 1684, Aphra Behn, “The Amours of Philander and Silvia”, in Love-Letters between a Noble-man and his Sister‎, London, page 277:

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

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

     […] 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.

   • 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:

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

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

     Her laugh got choked by a sob.

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

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

10. (intransitive) To have a feeling of strangulation in one's throat as a result of passion or strong emotion.
    • 1894, Israel Zangwill, chapter 2, in The King of Schnorrers‎, New York: Macmillan, page 48:

      Grobstock began to choke with chagrin.

    • 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?

11. (transitive) To give (someone) a feeling of strangulation as a result of passion or strong emotion.
    • 1712, Jonathan Swift, “An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity”, in The Works of J.S.‎, volume 1, Dublin: George Faulkner, published 1735, page 104:

      […] 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 […]

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

      I shall run distracted. My rage choaks me.

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

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

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

      Charlotte made herself stiff, controlling sudden choking emotion.

12. (transitive) To say (something) with one’s throat constricted (due to emotion, for example).
    • 1901, Rudyard Kipling, chapter 6, in Kim‎:

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

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

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

13. (transitive) To use the choke valve of (a vehicle) to adjust the air/fuel mixture in the engine.
    • 1939, John Steinbeck, chapter 26, in The Grapes of Wrath‎, New York: Viking, published 1962, page 492:

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

14. (intransitive, fluid mechanics, of a duct) To 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.

Noun

choke (plural chokes)

1. A control on a carburetor to adjust the air/fuel mixture when the engine is cold.
2. (sports) In 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. (electronics) A choking coil.
6. A major mistake at a crucial stage of a competition because one is nervous, especially when one is winning.

Derived terms

Noun

choke (plural chokes)

1. The mass of immature florets in the centre of the bud of an artichoke.
   • [2004, John Bridges, Bryan Curtis, A Gentleman at the Table, Thomas Nelson, →ISBN, page 60:

     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.]