choke

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A choke is when your airway gets blocked and it's hard to breathe. This can happen for many reasons, like choking on food or being unable to get enough oxygen.

When people say "choke" in a different way, they're talking about a feeling of pressure that stops you from doing something. For example, if you're nervous before an exam, you might feel a sense of choke – like you can't breathe properly because the situation is so overwhelming. This kind of choking can happen when you're under stress or anxiety.

How common is "choke"?

Word choke is considered uncommon in modern English.
It appears most frequently in fiction texts and less often in other writings.

Definitions

verb

(intransitive) 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).
Example: Ever since he choked on a bone, he has refused to eat fish.
(transitive) To prevent (someone) from breathing or talking by strangling or filling the windpipe.
Example: The collar of this shirt is too tight; it’s choking me.
(transitive) To obstruct (a passage, etc.) by filling it up or clogging it.
Example: to choke a cave passage with boulders and mud
(transitive) 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).
Example: 1697, John Dryden (translator), “The Fifth Pastoral,” lines 55-56, in The Works of Virgil, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 22, No fruitful Crop the sickly Fields return; But Oats and Darnel choak the rising Corn.
(intransitive, colloquial) To perform badly at a crucial stage of a competition, especially when one appears to be clearly winning.
Example: He has a lot of talent, but he tends to choke under pressure.
(transitive) To move one's fingers very close to the tip of a pencil, brush or other art tool.
(golf, baseball, transitive) To hold the club or bat lower on the shaft in order to shorten one's swing.
(intransitive) To be checked or stopped, as if by choking
(transitive) To check or stop (an utterance or voice) as if by choking.
(intransitive) To have a feeling of strangulation in one's throat as a result of passion or strong emotion.
Example: 2007, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Wizard of the Crow, New York: Knopf Doubleday, Book 3, p. 435, Tajirika felt himself choking with anger. How dare those hussies interfere with his business?
(transitive) To give (someone) a feeling of strangulation as a result of passion or strong emotion.
(transitive) To say (something) with one’s throat constricted (due to emotion, for example).
(transitive) To use the choke valve of (a vehicle) to adjust the air/fuel mixture in the engine.
(intransitive, fluid mechanics, of a duct) To reach a condition of maximum flowrate, due to the flow at the narrowest point of the duct becoming sonic (Ma = 1).
To make or install a choke, as in a cartridge, or in the bore of the barrel of a shotgun.