choke
pronunciation
How to pronounce choke in British English:
UK [tʃəʊk]
How to pronounce choke in American English:
US [tʃoʊk]
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- Noun:
- a coil of low resistance and high inductance used in electrical circuits to pass direct current and attenuate alternating current
- a valve that controls the flow of air into the carburetor of a gasoline engine
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- Verb:
- breathe with great difficulty, as when experiencing a strong emotion
- be too tight; rub or press
- wring the neck of
- constrict (someone's) throat and keep from breathing
- struggle for breath; have insufficient oxygen intake
- fail to perform adequately due to tension or agitation
- check or slow down the action or effect of
- become or cause to become obstructed
- impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of
- become stultified, suppressed, or stifled
- suppress the development, creativity, or imagination of
- die
- reduce the air supply
- cause to retch or choke
Word Origin
- choke
- choke: [14] Etymologically, to choke is to cut off air by constricting the ‘cheeks’, for it is a derivative of cēoce, the Old English word for ‘cheek’. There is actually such a verb recorded, just once, from Old English: the compound ācēocian, with the intensive prefix ā-; so probably the simple verb existed too, though evidence for it has not survived.The noun sense ‘valve controlling the flow of air to an engine’ dates from the 1920s, but it was a natural development from an earlier (18th-century), more general sense ‘constriction in a tube’; its parallelism with throttle, both being applied to constriction of the air passage and hence to control valves in an engine tube, is striking. (The choke of artichoke has no etymological connection with choke ‘deprive of air’.)
- choke (v.)
- c. 1300, transitive, "to strangle;" late 14c., "to make to suffocate," of persons as well as swallowed objects, a shortening of acheken (c. 1200), from Old English aceocian "to choke, suffocate" (with intensive a-), probably from root of ceoke "jaw, cheek" (see cheek (n.)). Intransitive sense from c. 1400. Meaning "gasp for breath" is from early 15c. Figurative use from c. 1400, in early use often with reference to weeds stifling the growth of useful plants (a Biblical image). Meaning "to fail in the clutch" is attested by 1976, American English. Related: Choked; choking. Choke-cherry (1785) supposedly so called for its astringent qualities. Johnson also has choke-pear "Any aspersion or sarcasm, by which another person is put to silence." Choked up "overcome with emotion and unable to speak" is attested by 1896. The baseball batting sense is by 1907.
- choke (n.)
- 1560s, "quinsy," from choke (v.). Meaning "action of choking" is from 1839. Meaning "valve which controls air to a carburetor" first recorded 1926.
Antonym
Example
- 1. However , a full 20 % increase will likely choke off the fragile chinese economic recovery .
- 2. We 've known for a century that laboratory rats choke under pressure .
- 3. Small blockages or collapses of the canal would choke the intricate irrigation networks .
- 4. Such tricks make silicon valley types choke on their freshly squeezed mango juice .
- 5. This would choke off supplies of fresh credit to the economy and lead to a more severe downturn .