EGAVE

choke

About 1.61 uses per million words.

Meaning

  1. verb 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.
  2. verb 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.
  3. verb To obstruct (a passage, etc.) by filling it up or clogging it.
    to choke a cave passage with boulders and mud
  4. verb 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. verb 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. verb To move one's fingers very close to the tip of a pencil, brush or other art tool.
  7. verb To hold the club or bat lower on the shaft in order to shorten one's swing.
  8. verb To be checked or stopped, as if by choking

Similar words

suffocate gag scrag choke off snuff it croak clog up foul drop dead kick the bucket

Often followed by

the on and off him her up me coil

Word family

choked chokes choking

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