1. [n]  a valve that controls the flow of air into the carburetor of a gasoline engine
2. [n]  a coil of low resistance and high inductance used in electrical circuits to pass direct current and attenuate alternating current
3. [v]  breathe with great difficulty, as when experiencing a strong emotion; "She choked with emotion when she spoke about her deceased husband"
4. [v]  cause to retch or choke
5. [v]  struggle for breath; have insufficient oxygen intake; "he swallowed a fishbone and gagged"
6. [v]  constrict (someone's) throat and keep from breathing
7. [v]  reduce the air supply; of carburetors
8. [v]  die (colloquial); "The old man finally kicked the bucket"
9. [v]  suppress the development, creativity, or imagination of; "His job suffocated him"
10. [v]  become stultified, suppressed, or stifled; "He is suffocating--living at home with his aged parents in the small village"
11. [v]  impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of; "The foul air was slowly suffocating the children"
12. [v]  become or cause to become obstructed; "The leaves clog our drains in the Fall"; "The water pipe is backed up"
13. [v]  be too tight; rub or press; "This neckband is choking the cat"
14. [v]  wring the neck of; "The man choked his opponent"
15. [v]  check or slow down the action or effect of; "She choked her anger"
16. [v]  fail to perform adequately due to tension or agitation; "The team should have won hands down but choked, disappointing the coach and the audience"

1. \Choke\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Choked}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Choking}.] [OE. cheken, choken; cf. AS. [=a]ceocian to
   suffocate, Icel. koka to gulp, E. chincough, cough.]
   1. To render unable to breathe by filling, pressing upon, or
      squeezing the windpipe; to stifle; to suffocate; to
      strangle.
   
            With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder.
                                                  --Shak.
   
   2. To obstruct by filling up or clogging any passage; to
      block up. --Addison.
   
   3. To hinder or check, as growth, expansion, progress, etc.;
      to stifle.
   
            Oats and darnel choke the rising corn. --Dryden.
   
   4. To affect with a sense of strangulation by passion or
      strong feeling. ``I was choked at this word.'' --Swift.
   
   5. To make a choke, as in a cartridge, or in the bore of the
      barrel of a shotgun.
   
   {To choke off}, to stop a person in the execution of a
      purpose; as, to choke off a speaker by uproar.
   
   

2. \Choke\, v. i.
   1. To have the windpipe stopped; to have a spasm of the
      throat, caused by stoppage or irritation of the windpipe;
      to be strangled.
   
   2. To be checked, as if by choking; to stick.
   
            The words choked in his throat.       --Sir W.
                                                  Scott.
   
   

3. \Choke\, n.
   1. A stoppage or irritation of the windpipe, producing the
      feeling of strangulation.
   
   2. (Gun.)
      (a) The tied end of a cartridge.
      (b) A constriction in the bore of a shotgun, case of a
          rocket, etc.
   
   

1. To reject input, often ungracefully. "NULs make System V's "lpr(1)" choke." "I tried building an emacs binary to use x, but "cpp(1)" choked on all those "#define"s." See barf, gag.

2. [MIT] More generally, to fail at any endeavor, but with some flair or bravado; the popular definition is "to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory."

[jargon file]