choke out

Definitions

1. 1

   To say (something) with difficulty, while or as if choking.

   • Language failed. Pause—impotent struggle for further words—then he gave it up, choked out a deep, strong oath, and departed for good.
   • He choked out the confession with the recklessness of final despair.
   • […] giving way to tears, I choked out the dreadful trouble I was in.
2. 2

   To prevent (something) from growing by overwhelming it or robbing it of nutrients.

   • We had reached the end of the grass where the bush and trees of the mountain slope had choked it out […]
   • A grove of oaks, sturdy, spreading wide their branches clad in green-bronze leaves, had thrived to the elimination of spruces, except a few giants that could not be choked out.
   • […] wasn’t it gradual enough? I mean, the wrinkles coming, the gray choking out the black, the skin slackening and sinews getting stringy?
3. 3

   To extinguish (fire) (by depriving it of oxygen or fuel).

4. ›+ 3 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      To destroy (something) by depriving it of a vital resource.

      • […] he would earnestly and pathetically plead that we should not, as Priests, suffer the serving of tables to choke out that inner life of the spirit which it was our first duty to feed and nourish.
   2. 5

      To prevent (light) from passing through.

      • Although this ivy had choked out what little light might have trickled into the room, it was not strong enough to prevent the birds from finding a way through and from visiting Lady Gertrude at any hour of night or day.
      • The moment he pushes open the door the place speaks to me of prehistoric times […] when above the oozing bog that was the earth, swirling white gasses choked out the sunlight […]
   3. 6

      To cause (a person) to lose consciousness by applying a chokehold.

      • We got out of the car, the guy resisted, and I choked him out. The bar arm was the tool of choice in those days. If anybody resisted, we just choked him out.

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