choak

Verb

choke (third-person singular simple present chokes, present participle choking, simple past and past participle choked)

1. (intransitive) 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. (transitive) 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.

   Synonyms:

   asphyxiate, strangle, suffocate, throttle

3. (transitive) To obstruct (a passage, etc.) by filling it up or clogging it.
   • to choke a cave passage with boulders and mud

   Synonyms:

   block up, bung up, clog, congest, jam, obstruct, stop up

4. (transitive) 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).
   • Now ’tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted;
     Suffer them now, and they’ll o’ergrow the garden
     And choke the herbs for want of husbandry.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

   Synonyms:

   choke out, stifle

5. (colloquial, intransitive) 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. (transitive) To move one's fingers very close to the tip of a pencil, brush or other art tool.
   • A brief tryout will demonstrate that the modified grip does indeed make it difficult to “choke” the pencil or apply excessive pressure to the paper.1973, Wayne Otto et al., chapter 13, in Corrective and Remedial Teaching, 2nd edition, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 361

See all 22 meanings of choke