choke

To be unable to breathe because of obstruction of the windpipe (for instance food or other objects that go down the wrong way, or fumes or particles in the air that cause the throat to constrict).

Ever since he choked on a bone, he has refused to eat fish.

Lenore began to choke with the fine dust and to feel her eyes smart and to see it settle on her hands and dress.

To prevent (someone) from breathing or talking by strangling or filling the windpipe.

The collar of this shirt is too tight; it’s choking me.

With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder:

To obstruct (a passage, etc.) by filling it up or clogging it.

to choke a cave passage with boulders and mud

This was a Passage, so rugged, so uneven, and choaked with so many Thorns and Briars, that it was a melancholy Spectacle to behold the Pains and Difficulties which both Sexes suffered who walked through it.

To hinder or check, as growth, expansion, progress, etc.; to kill (a plant by robbing it of nutrients); to extinguish (fire by robbing it of oxygen).

Now ’tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted; Suffer them now, and they’ll o’ergrow the garden And choke the herbs for want of husbandry.

And some [seeds] fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:

To perform badly at a crucial stage of a competition, especially when one appears to be clearly winning.

He has a lot of talent, but he tends to choke under pressure.

“I can’t say that I choked on those match points,” Williams said. “She literally played her best tennis ever on those shots.”

A control on a carburetor to adjust the air/fuel mixture when the engine is cold.

In wrestling, karate (etc.), a type of hold that can result in strangulation.

A constriction at the muzzle end of a shotgun barrel which affects the spread of the shot.

A partial or complete blockage (of boulders, mud, etc.) in a cave passage.

A choking coil.

The mass of immature florets in the centre of the bud of an artichoke.

Once all the leaves are gone, a hairy little island will remain in the middle of the artichoke. This is the “choke.” A gentleman uses his knife and fork to slice it away, uncovering the delicious artichoke “heart” underneath.