Dictionary
choke
Pronunciation: (chōk), [key]
—v., choked, chok•ing,
—n.
—
v.t.
1. to stop the breath of by squeezing or obstructing the windpipe; strangle; stifle.
2. to stop by or as if by strangling or stifling:
The sudden wind choked his words.
3. to stop by filling; obstruct; clog:
Grease choked the drain.
4. to suppress (a feeling, emotion, etc.) (often fol. by
back or
down):
I managed to choke back my tears.
5. to fill chock-full:
The storeroom was choked with furniture.
6. to seize (a log, felled tree, etc.) with a chain, cable, or the like, so as to facilitate removal.
7. to enrich the fuel mixture of (an internal-combustion engine) by diminishing the air supply to the carburetor.
8. Sports.to grip (a bat, racket, or the like) farther than usual from the end of the handle; shorten one's grip on (often fol. by
up).
—
v.i.
1. to suffer from or as from strangling or suffocating:
He choked on a piece of food.
2. to become obstructed, clogged, or otherwise stopped:
The words choked in her throat.
3. choke off, to stop or obstruct by or as by choking:
to choke off a nation's fuel supply.
4. choke up,
a. to become or cause to become speechless, as from the effect of emotion or stress:
She choked up over the sadness of the tale.
b. to become too tense or nervous to perform well:
Our team began to choke up in the last inning.
—
n.
1. the act or sound of choking.
2. a mechanism by which the air supply to the carburetor of an internal-combustion engine can be diminished or stopped.
3. Mach.any mechanism that, by blocking a passage, regulates the flow of air, gas, etc.
4. Elect.See
choke coil.
5. a narrowed part, as in a chokebore.
6. the bristly upper portion of the receptacle of the artichoke.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
