Word.ws English Dictionary

chokehold

Syllables: choke·hold/ˈt͡ʃəʊkhəʊld//ˈt͡ʃoʊkˌ(h)oʊld/

chokehold noun: a grappling hold around a person's neck, especially one in which the neck is grasped tightly from behind with an arm, cutting off the flow of blood to the brain and restricting breathing.

chokehold: a grappling hold around a person's neck, especially one in which the neck is grasped tightly from...
Image: U.S. Army photo by Timothy Hale, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

chokehold (plural chokeholds)

  1. A grappling hold around a person's neck, especially one in which the neck is grasped tightly from behind with an arm, cutting off the flow of blood to the brain and restricting breathing.
    • He put his opponent in a chokehold.
    • Within five to ten seconds, one officer began to apply a choke hold by pressing his forearm into [Adolph] Lyons' throat. As Lyons was struggling for air, the officer handcuffed him and continued to apply the choke hold until Lyons blacked out. He was almost choked to death. […] Between 1975 and...2001, Lisa A. Kloppenberg, “The Court Uses Standing to Discourage Redress for Racial Wrongs”, in Playing it Safe: How the Supreme Court Sidesteps Hard Cases and Stunts the Development of Law...
    Synonyms:
    neckhold
  2. (broadly, figuratively) A powerful and restrictive control or influence over something.
    • One country has a chokehold on another country's economy.
    • With the music industry releasing their chokehold on these television talent shows, it too is looking to other sources like social media – [Rob] Wade calls TikTok "one giant talent show" – to find new talent rather than primetime TV.2021 September 15, Laura Martin, “How Talent Shows Became TV’s Most Bizarre Programmes”, in BBC Online, archived from the original on 18 Apr 2023

Verb

chokehold (third-person singular simple present chokeholds, present participle chokeholding, simple past and past participle chokeheld)

  1. (transitive) To put a hold around the neck of (someone), especially one in which the neck is grasped tightly from behind with an arm.
  2. (broadly, figuratively, transitive) To exert tight, restrictive, control over someone or something.

Synonyms of chokehold

Forms of chokehold

Noun
pluralchokeholds
alternative formchoke-hold
alternative formchoke hold
Verb
third-person singular presentchokeholds
present participlechokeholding
past participlechokeheld
pastchokeheld

Origin of chokehold

The noun is derived from choke (verb) + hold (noun). The verb is derived from the noun.

Questions about chokehold

What does chokehold mean?
Chokehold means a grappling hold around a person's neck, especially one in which the neck is grasped tightly from behind with an arm, cutting off the flow of blood to the brain and restricting breathing.
What part of speech is chokehold?
Chokehold can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce chokehold?
Chokehold is pronounced /ˈt͡ʃəʊkhəʊld/ (UK).
What is the plural of chokehold?
The plural of chokehold is chokeholds.

Words near chokehold in the dictionary

  1. chokedar
  2. chokedars
  3. chokeful
  4. chokefull
  5. chokeheld
  6. chokehold
  7. chokeholded
  8. chokeholding
  9. chokeholds
  10. chokepoint
  11. chokepoints

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chokehold (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-chokehold.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-chokehold.wav.

Cite this entry: “chokehold.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chokehold. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.