sticking in someone's throat

Verb

stick in someone's throat (third-person singular simple present sticks in someone's throat, present participle sticking in someone's throat, simple past and past participle stuck in someone's throat)

1. To be too difficult to speak.
   • In truth, it seems that the words 'I do not know' stick in every physician's throat.2012, Salvatore Mangione, Physical Diagnosis Secrets
2. To cause an aching sensation in the throat as if something is stuck there.
   • His breath stuck in his throat.2008, Deeanne Gist, Deep in the Heart of Trouble, page 307
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see stick, throat.
   • I took so many of them, felt them stick in my throat and I swallowed and swallowed to get them down, and I sat with that bottle and chanted, more, more, more, and then the bottle was nearly empty and I thought suddenly, Wait, I don't want to die2002, Catherine Coulter, Hemlock Bay