choke
Noun · VerbOpen English WordNet
Verb (14)chokes, choked, choking
- breathe with great difficulty, as when experiencing a strong emotion“She choked with emotion when she spoke about her deceased husband”More general breathe, take a breath
- be too tight; rub or press“This neckband is choking the cat”Synonyms: gagfretMore general compress, constrict
- wring the neck of“The man choked his opponent”Synonyms: scragMore general compress, constrict
- constrict (someone's) throat and keep from breathingSynonyms: strangleMore general compress, constrict
- struggle for breath; have insufficient oxygen intake“he swallowed a fishbone and gagged”Synonyms: gagstranglesuffocateMore general suffer, hurt
- fail to perform adequately due to tension or agitation“The team should have won hands down but choked, disappointing the coach and the audience”More general fail, neglect
- check or slow down the action or effect of“She choked her anger”
- become or cause to become obstructed“The leaves clog our drains in the Fall”“The water pipe is backed up”Synonyms: clogchoke offclog upback upcongestfoulcrap up
- impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of“The foul air was slowly suffocating the children”Synonyms: suffocatestifleasphyxiate
- become stultified, suppressed, or stifled“He is suffocating — living at home with his aged parents in the small village”Synonyms: suffocate
- suppress the development, creativity, or imagination of“His job suffocated him”Synonyms: suffocate
- pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life“She died from cancer”“The children perished in the fire”“The patient went peacefully”“The old guy kicked the bucket at the age of 102”Synonyms: diedeceaseperishgoexitpass awayexpirepasskick the bucketcash in one's chipsbuy the farmconkgive-up the ghostdrop deadpop offcroaksnuff it
- reduce the air supply“choke a carburetor”Synonyms: throttle
- cause to retch or chokeSynonyms: gag
Noun (2)chokes
- a coil of low resistance and high inductance used in electrical circuits to pass direct current and attenuate alternating currentSynonyms: choke coilchoking coilType of coilPart of circuit, electrical circuit
- a valve that controls the flow of air into the carburetor of a gasoline engineType of valveKinds automatic chokePart of fuel system
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: OE. cheken, choken; cf. AS. āceocian to suffocate, Icel. koka to gulp, E. chincough, cough.
1. To render unable to breathe by filling, pressing upon, or squeezing the windpipe; to stifle; to suffocate; to strangle.
With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder.— William Shakespeare
2. To obstruct by filling up or clogging any passage; to block up. Joseph Addison
3. To hinder or check, as growth, expansion, progress, etc.; to stifle.
Oats and darnel choke the rising corn.— John Dryden
4. To affect with a sense of strangulation by passion or strong feeling. “I was choked at this word.” Jonathan Swift
5. To make a choke, as in a cartridge, or in the bore of the barrel of a shotgun.
To choke off, to stop a person in the execution of a purpose; as, to choke off a speaker by uproar.
1. To have the windpipe stopped; to have a spasm of the throat, caused by stoppage or irritation of the windpipe; to be strangled.
2. To be checked, as if by choking; to stick.
The words choked in his throat.— Sir Walter Scott
1. A stoppage or irritation of the windpipe, producing the feeling of strangulation.
2. Gunnery (a) The tied end of a cartridge. (b) A constriction in the bore of a shotgun, case of a rocket, etc.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
<jargon> To fail to process input or, more generally, to fail at any endeavor.
E.g. "NULs make System V's "lpr(1)" choke." See barf, gag. [Jargon File]
(2006-09-20)
The Jargon File
[common] To reject input, often ungracefully. “NULs make System V's lpr(1) choke.” “I tried building an EMACS binary to use X, but cpp(1) choked on all those #defines.” See barf, vi.