Choke

Choke - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

CHOKE, v.t.

1. To stop the passage of the breath, by filling the windpipe or compressing the neck. The word is used to express a temporary or partial stoppage, as to choke with dirt or smoke; or an entire stoppage that causes death; to suffocate; to strangle. Mark 5.

2. To stop by filling; to obstruct; to block up; as, to choke the entrance of a harbor, or any passage.

3. To hinder by obstruction or impediments; to hinder or check growth, expansion, or progress; as, to choke plants; to choke the spreading of the fruit.

Thorns choke them. Mat 13. Luke 8.

4. To smother or suffocate, as fire.

5. To suppress or stifle; as, to choke the strong conception.

6. To offend; to cause to take an exception; as, I was choked at this word.

We observe that this word generally implies crowding, stuffing or covering. A channel is choked by stones and sand, but not by a boom.

CHOKE, v.i.

1. To have the wind-pipe stopped; as, cattle are apt to choke when eating potatoes.

2. To be offended; to take exceptions.

CHOKE, n. The filamentous or capillary part of the artichoke.

chok (pnigo, and its compounds): Is used in its primary sense of "to strangle," or "to suffocate," in describing the fate of the swine (Lu 8:33 the King James Version). The Revised Version (British and American) has "drowned," but "choked" is the correct rendering of the Greek word.

Figurative: It is used in the sense of "to strangle" "smother," "suffocate," as if by depriving of breath, in describing the fate of the young grain growing in the midst of thorns (Mt 13:7). The figurative is carried a little farther still in describing the way the word, planted in the heart, is overcome by the care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches (Mt 13:22).

A. W. Fortune