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choke
choked with emotion
So overwhelmed with an emotion, either positive or negative, as to be unable to speak clearly or at all. I was positively choked with emotion by all the lovely speeches at my retirement party.
choked by emotion
So overwhelmed with an emotion, either positive or negative, as to be unable to speak clearly or at all. She was choked by emotion when she stepped up to speak at her mother's funeral.
enough to choke a horse
A huge or excessive amount. When my grandmother cooks for family gatherings, she always makes enough to choke a horse!
enough (something) to choke Caligula's horse
A lot of something. The phrase likely mentions Caligula because the Roman emperor was known for his penchant for excess. A: "Do you think I got enough balloons? B: "Are you kidding? There are enough balloons here to choke Caligula's horse!"
choke on something
to gag and cough on something stuck in the throat. The dog choked on the meat. The restaurant patron began to choke on a fish bone.
choke someone off
to prevent someone from continuing to talk. (A figurative use; does not imply physical choking.) The opposition choked the speakers' debate off before they finished. Why did they want to choke off the speakers?
choke someone up
Fig. to cause someone to feel like starting to cry. Sad stories like that always choke me up. The movie was sad and it choked up most of the audience.
choke something back
to fight hard to keep something from coming out of one's mouth, such as sobs, tears, angry words, vomit, etc. I tried to choke the unpleasant words back, but I could not. She choked back her grief, but it came forth nonetheless. I could hardly choke my tears back.
choke something down
to eat something, even though it is hard to swallow or tastes bad. The cough medicine tasted terrible, but I managed to choke it down. She choked down four of those pills all at once.
choke something off
1. Lit. to restrict or strangle a living creature's windpipe. The tight collar on the cat tended to choke its airstream off. The collar choked off its airstream.
2. Fig. to put an end to debate or discussion; to stop the flow of words from any source. Are they going to choke the debate off? The chair tried to choke off debate but failed.
choke something up
1. to clog something up; to fill up and block something. Branches and leaves choked the sewer up. Rust choked up the pipes.
2. to cough or choke until something that has blocked one's windpipe is brought up. The old man choked up the candy that was stuck in his windpipe. He choked up the chunk of meat and could breathe again.
choke up
1. to feel like crying. I choked up when I heard the news. He was beginning to choke up as he talked.
2. to become emotional or saddened so that one cannot speak. I choked up when I heard about the disaster. I was choking up, and I knew I would not be able to go on.
choke off something
also choke something off to suddenly stop the movement or progress of something He told his staff to stop talking to the press, hoping to choke off the bad publicity.
choke (you) up
to have difficulty speaking because you feel great emotion During his farewell talk the coach got all choked up and started to cry.
choke back
Suppress, as in He choked back his tears. [Late 1800s]
choke off
1. Put a stop to, throttle, as in Higher interest rates are choking off the real estate boom. [Early 1800s]
2. Stop someone from speaking or complaining, as in Throughout the debate the congressman had to be choked off to give the other candidate a chance to speak . [Slang; late 1800s]
choke up
1. Block a channel or other passage, as in Vegetation choked up the creek like a dam. [Late 1600s]
2. Be too emotional or upset to speak, as in She became so emotional about winning that she choked up and was unable to give an interview .
3. Become too nervous or tense in a critical situation to perform, as in He's fine during practice but in a match he tends to choke up. This usage, also put as to choke alone, is especially common in sports. [Colloquial; mid-1900s]
choke back
v. To suppress or hold something back, especially with great effort: I choked back tears as I told my family the sad news.
choke off
v. To prevent or stop the free flow of something: High tariffs choked off trade between the two countries. The car accident in the middle of the road choked the traffic off, and no one could get through.
choke up
v.1. To be unable to speak because of strong emotion: The speaker choked up when he tried to talk about his grandparents' journey to America.
2. To cause someone to be unable to speak because of strong emotion: Their generosity choked me up. Whenever I hear the national anthem, I get choked up.
3. choke up on To grip some implement that is used to strike something, such as a baseball bat or a hammer, at a point closer to where contact is made:The child had to choke up on the golf club because it was too large.
beat the dummy
and beat the meat and beat one’s meat and beat the pup and choke the chicken and pound one’s meat and pull one’s pud and pull one’s wire and whip one’s wire and whip the dummy and yank one’s strap tv. to masturbate. (Usually objectionable.) Are you going to sit around all day pulling your pud? We heard him in there “choking the chicken,” as the street crowd says.
choke the chicken
verbchoke
1. in. [for a computer] to fail to take in information being fed to it. (Computers.) If you don’t have your modem and your software set the same way as the host, your machine will choke.
2. in. to panic before or during a test. (From choke up.) She always chokes during a test.
choked
mod. having to do with overly diluted drugs. Why is this stuff so stepped on—you know, choked?
Common Names:
| Name | Gender | Pronounced | Usage |
|---|
| Howard | | ['hauəd] | |
| Kate | | KAYT (English) | English, Croatian |
| Amin | | - | Arabic, Persian, Urdu |
| Dawson | | ['dɔ:sn] | |
| Nathaniel | | nə-THAN-ee-əl (English), nə-THAN-yəl (English) | English, Biblical |
| Yehoram | | - | Biblical Hebrew |