throttle

noun

1. 1

   A valve that regulates the supply of fuel-air mixture to an internal combustion engine and thus controls its speed; a similar valve that controls the air supply to an engine.

2. 2

   The lever or pedal that controls this valve.

   To my unpractised eye, the undulations in the track were quite imperceptible, but the engineer's hand on the throttle was never still.

3. 3

   archaicThe windpipe or trachea.

   Then up got Peg, and round the house gan scuttle, / In search of goods her customer to nail, / Until the Sultaun strain'd his princely throttle, / And hollow'd,—"Ma'am, that is not what I ail.["]

   Nor took a punch nor given a swing, / But just soaked deady round the ring / Until their brains and bloods were foul / Enough to make their throttles howl, […]

   From the cabin came that horrible song: "Here's to the feet wot have walked the plank. ⁠Yo ho! for the dead man's throttle."

verb

1. 1

   To control or adjust the speed of (an engine).

2. 2

   To cut back on the speed of (an engine, person, organization, network connection, etc.).

3. 3

   To strangle or choke someone.

   Grant him this, and the Parliament hath no more freedom than if it sat in his noose, which, when he pleases to draw together with one twitch of his negative, shall throttle a whole nation, to the wish of Caligula, in one neck.

4. 4

   To have the throat obstructed so as to be in danger of suffocation; to choke; to suffocate.

5. 5

   To breathe hard, as when nearly suffocated.

6. 6

   To utter with breaks and interruption, in the manner of a person half suffocated.

   I have seen them shiver and look pale, Make periods in the midst of sentences, Throttle their practised accent in their fears.

Forms

plural

throttles

past tense

throttled

past participle

throttled

present participle

throttling

third person singular

throttles