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1. Causing difficulty in breathing especially through lack of fresh air and presence of heat
   "the choking June dust";
   - smothering, suffocating, suffocative

1. A condition caused by blocking the airways to the lungs (as with food or swelling of the larynx)
    
2. The act of suffocating (someone) by constricting the windpipe
   "no evidence that the choking was done by the accused";
   - strangling, strangulation, throttling

1. Breathe with great difficulty, as when experiencing a strong emotion
   "She choked with emotion when she spoke about her deceased husband"
    
2. Be too tight; rub or press
   "This neckband is choking the cat";
   - gag, fret
    
3. Wring the neck of
   "The man choked his opponent";
   - scrag [N. Amer, informal]
    
4. Constrict (someone's) throat and keep from breathing
   - strangle
    
5. Struggle for breath; have insufficient oxygen intake
   "he swallowed a fishbone and choked";
   - gag, strangle, suffocate
    
6. Fail to perform adequately due to tension or agitation
   "The team should have won hands down but choked, disappointing the coach and the audience"
    
7. Check or slow down the action or effect of
   "She choked her anger"
    
8. Become or cause to become obstructed
   "The leaves choke off our drains in the Fall";
   - clog, choke off, clog up, back up, congest, foul
    
9. Impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of
   "The foul air was slowly choking the children";
   - suffocate, stifle, asphyxiate
    
10. Become stultified, suppressed, or stifled
    "He is choking--living at home with his aged parents in the small village";
    - suffocate
     
11. Suppress the development, creativity, or imagination of
    "His job choked him";
    - suffocate
     
12. Reduce the air supply
    "choke a carburettor";
    - throttle
     
13. Cause to retch or choke
    - gag
     
14. Cease to live; lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life
    - die, decease [archaic], perish, go, exit, pass away, expire, pass, kick the bucket [informal], cash in one's chips [informal], buy the farm [N. Amer, informal], conk [informal], give-up the ghost [informal], drop dead, pop off [informal], croak [informal], snuff it [informal], flatline [informal], cop it [Brit, informal], cash in [informal], pop one's clogs [informal]

Derived forms: chokings

See also: breathless, dyspeic, dyspneal [N. Amer], dyspneic [Brit, N. Amer], dyspnoeal [Brit, Cdn], dyspnoeic [Brit, Cdn], dyspoeic

Type of: asphyxiation, become, block, bottle up, breathe, change state, close up, compact, compress, constrict, contract, dampen, disorder, enrich, fail, hurt, impede, inhibit, jam, neglect, obstruct, obturate, occlude, press, respire, sicken, squeeze, stifle, suffer, suffocation, suppress, suspire [literary], take a breath, turn, upset

Encyclopedia: Choking