Word.ws English Dictionary

choke down

choke down verb: to swallow with difficulty.

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To swallow with difficulty.
    • I was already stuffed, but I managed to choke down some more apple pie anyway. It was so good that I couldn't stop.
    • I didn't like her casserole because I don't care for cumin, but I managed to choke down a plateful anyway, because she meant well and I didn't have the heart to disappoint her.

Examples of choke down in a sentence

  • “With three marriages an' a drinkin' problem, I've had all the go-between I can choke down,” said Buck.2003, Jan Karon, In This Mountain, Penguin, →ISBN, page 164:
  • The Queen had managed to choke down enough luncheon for a family of four before submitting to her attendants' demands that she retire to her room and rest.2011, Carol K. Carr, India Black and the Widow of Windsor, Penguin, →ISBN, page 161:
  • Just remember, if you mess up on a drink, give them your prettiest smile, and they'll happily choke down whatever you brought them.2011, Lucy Kevin, Seattle Girl, Oak Press, LLC, →ISBN, page 73:
  • I choked it down the way I used to choke down the brussels sprouts my mother insisted were good for me.2012, Nora Roberts, The Last Boyfriend, Penguin, →ISBN, page 274:

Forms of choke down

third-person singular presentchokes down
present participlechoking down
pastchoked down
past participlechoke down

Questions about choke down

What does choke down mean?
Choke down means to swallow with difficulty.
How do you use choke down in a sentence?
“With three marriages an' a drinkin' problem, I've had all the go-between I can choke down,” said Buck.
What part of speech is choke down?
Choke down is a verb.
What is the past tense of choke down?
The past tense of choke down is choked down.

Words near choke down in the dictionary

  1. choke chain
  2. choke chains
  3. choke collar
  4. choke collars
  5. choke damp
  6. choke down
  7. choke full
  8. choke hold
  9. choke holds
  10. choke off
  11. choke on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: choke down (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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