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See also: chớ kể


Alternative forms[edit]


From Middle English choken (also cheken), from Old English *ċēocian, āċēocian (to choke), probably derived from Old English ċēoce, ċēace (jaw, cheek), see cheek. Cognate with Icelandic kok (throat), koka (to gulp). See also achoke.



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.
  2. (transitive) To prevent someone from breathing by strangling or filling the windpipe.
    • Shakespeare
      With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder.
  3. To obstruct by filling up or clogging any passage; to block up.
    to choke a cave passage with boulders and mud
  4. To hinder or check, as growth, expansion, progress, etc.; to stifle.
    • Dryden
      Oats and darnel choke the rising corn.
  5. (intransitive, fluid mechanics, of a duct) to reach a condition of maximum flowrate, due to the flow at the narrowest point of the duct becoming sonic (Ma = 1).
  6. (intransitive) To perform badly at a crucial stage of a competition because one is nervous, especially when one is winning.
  7. To move one's fingers very close to the tip of a pencil, brush or other art tool.
  8. To be checked, as if by choking; to stick.
    • Sir Walter Scott
      The words choked in his throat.
  9. To affect with a sense of strangulation by passion or strong feeling.
    • Jonathan Swift
      I was choked at this word.
  10. To make a choke, as in a cartridge, or in the bore of the barrel of a shotgun.



choke (plural chokes)

  1. A control on a carburetor to adjust the air/fuel mixture when the engine is cold.
  2. (sports) In wrestling, karate (etc.), a type of hold that can result in strangulation.
  3. A constriction at the muzzle end of a shotgun barrel which affects the spread of the shot.
  4. A partial or complete blockage (of boulders, mud, etc.) in a cave passage.
  5. The mass of immature florets in the centre of the bud of an artichoke.


Derived terms[edit]

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