choke

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English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English choken (also cheken), from earlier acheken, from Old English āċēocian (“to choke”), probably derived from Old English ċēoce, ċēace (“jaw, cheek”), see cheek. Cognate with Icelandic kok (“throat”), koka (“to gulp”). See also achoke.

Alternative forms

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Verb

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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[1], 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.
  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[3], 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[4], 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[5], 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
  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.
  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[8], 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
  9. (transitive) To check or stop (an utterance or voice) as if by choking.
  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[13], 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,[14]
      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.
  12. (transitive) To say (something) with one’s throat constricted (due to emotion, for example).
    • 1901, Rudyard Kipling, chapter 6, in Kim‎[18]:
      ‘There is the padre!’ Kim choked as bare-headed Father Victor sailed down upon them from the veranda.
    • 1995, Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance‎[19], 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.
  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.
Translations
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Noun

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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.
Translations
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Derived terms

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Etymology 2

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The choke of an artichoke

Back-formation from artichoke.

Noun

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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.]

French

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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choke

  1. inflection of choker:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

Hawaiian Creole

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Etymology

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From English choke.

Pronunciation

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Pronoun

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choke

  1. a lot, many
    Get choke food ova hea.
    There’s lots of food over here.

Middle English

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Noun

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choke

  1. Alternative form of cheke
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