choke
/t͡ʃoʊk/ verb B1- 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.
- To prevent (someone) from breathing or talking by strangling or filling the windpipe. · The collar of this shirt is too tight; it’s choking me.
- To obstruct (a passage, etc.) by filling it up or clogging it. · to choke a cave passage with boulders and mud
- 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).
- 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.
- To move one's fingers very close to the tip of a pencil, brush or other art tool.
- To hold the club or bat lower on the shaft in order to shorten one's swing.
- To be checked or stopped, as if by choking
He/she/it chokes · Past choked · Past participle choked · -ing form choking
Verb forms
- Base form
- choke
- He/she/it
- chokes
- Past
- choked
- Past participle
- choked
- -ing form
- choking
Phrasal verbs and expressions
- choke back To hold back or suppress (an emotion, expression of emoti...
- choke down To swallow with difficulty.
- choke off To get rid of; to cause to come to an end.
- choke on To refuse to accept (something).
- choke out To say (something) with difficulty, while or as if choking.
- choke up To (temporarily) lose one's power of speech, because of s...
From the library
The two oarsmen bent to their work, and the little boat glided away as rapidly as possible in the midst of the thousand vessels which choke up the narrow way which leads between the two rows of ships from the mouth of the harbor to the Quai d’Orléans.
“So, so,” said he, in a hoarse and choking voice, to Danglars, “this, then, I suppose, is a part of the trick you were concerting yesterday?
The idea tickled Gregson so much that he laughed until he choked.
Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope’s Court looked like a coster’s orange barrow.
Other matches
Learn choke in real texts
With a free account, hover any word in the library for its meaning, hear it read aloud, save words for review timed to your memory, and see how much of each book you already know.