Loading..

Loading...

American Dictionary of the English Language

Dictionary Search

Choke


CHOKE, verb transitive

1. To stop the passage of the breath, by filling the windpipe or compressing the neck. The word is used to express a temporary or partial stoppage, as to choke with dirt or smoke; or an entire stoppage that causes death; to suffocate; to strangle. Mark 5:13.

2. To stop by filling; to obstruct; to block up; as, to choke the entrance of a harbor, or any passage.

3. To hinder by obstruction or impediments; to hinder or check growth, expansion, or progress; as, to choke plants; to choke the spreading of the fruit.

Thorns choke them. Matthew 13:22. Luke 8:7.

4. To smother or suffocate, as fire.

5. To suppress or stifle; as, to choke the strong conception.

6. To offend; to cause to take an exception; as, I was choked at this word.

We observe that this word generally implies crowding, stuffing or covering. A channel is choked by stones and sand, but not by a boom.

CHOKE, verb intransitive

1. To have the wind-pipe stopped; as, cattle are apt to choke when eating potatoes.

2. To be offended; to take exceptions.

CHOKE, noun The filamentous or capillary part of the artichoke.