Choke

/t͡ʃəʊk/ · verb

Meaning

(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)..

Definitions by Sense

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).
2. (transitive) To prevent (someone) from breathing or talking by strangling or filling the windpipe.
3. (transitive) To obstruct (a passage, etc.) by filling it up or clogging it.
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).
5. (intransitive, colloquial) To perform badly at a crucial stage of a competition, especially when one appears to be clearly winning.
6. (transitive) To move one's fingers very close to the tip of a pencil, brush or other art tool.
7. (golf, baseball, transitive) To hold the club or bat lower on the shaft in order to shorten one's swing.
8. (intransitive) To be checked or stopped, as if by choking

Example Sentences

Ever since he choked on a bone, he has refused to eat fish.

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

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

Passengers on the earliest railway services would not even have enjoyed the luxury of a platform, instead having to step up onto the waiting open top wagons, where they would experience a journey that left many choking on the plumes of smoke exhaled by the leading locomotive.

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

With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder:

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.

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

Synonyms for choke

Antonyms for choke

Related Words

Word Forms

• chokes
• choking
• choked
• choak
• choake
• chock

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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