choking

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

choking
    n 1: a condition caused by blocking the airways to the lungs (as
         with food or swelling of the larynx)
    2: the act of suffocating (someone) by constricting the
       windpipe; "no evidence that the choking was done by the
       accused" [syn: {choking}, {strangling}, {strangulation},
       {throttling}]

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Choke \Choke\ (ch[=o]k), 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.
      [1913 Webster]

            With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder.
                                                  --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To obstruct by filling up or clogging any passage; to
      block up. --Addison.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. To hinder or check, as growth, expansion, progress, etc.;
      to stifle.
      [1913 Webster]

            Oats and darnel choke the rising corn. --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. To affect with a sense of strangulation by passion or
      strong feeling. "I was choked at this word." --Swift.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. To make a choke, as in a cartridge, or in the bore of the
      barrel of a shotgun.
      [1913 Webster]

   {To choke off}, to stop a person in the execution of a
      purpose; as, to choke off a speaker by uproar.
      [1913 Webster]

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Choking \Chok"ing\, a.
   1. That chokes; producing the feeling of strangulation.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Indistinct in utterance, as the voice of a person affected
      with strong emotion.

134 Moby Thesaurus words for "choking": abolishment, abolition, annihilation, annulment, asphyxia, asphyxiation, bar, barrier, blank wall, blind alley, blind gut, block, blockade, blockage, blurred, bottleneck, breathy, burking, burning out, burnout, cecum, choke, choked, choking off, clog, congestion, constipation, constrictive, contrary, controlling, costiveness, counterproductive, croaking, crosswise, cul-de-sac, damping, dead end, deracination, dousing, drawling, drawly, drowning, dying, dysphonic, elimination, embolism, embolus, eradication, extermination, extinction, extinguishment, extirpation, fire fighting, flame-out, garrote, going out, gorge, guttural, harsh, hawking, hindering, hindersome, hoarse, impasse, impediment, in the way, inarticulate, indistinct, infarct, infarction, inhibiting, inhibitive, interrupting, interruptive, jam, killing, liquidation, lisping, liver death, megadeath, mispronounced, muzzy, nasal, negation, nullification, obstacle, obstipation, obstructing, obstruction, obstructive, obstruent, occlusive, purge, putting out, quashing, quavering, quenching, repressive, restrictive, rooting out, sealing off, serum death, shaking, shaky, silencing, smotheration, smothering, snuffing, snuffing out, snuffling, squashing, squelching, starvation, stifled, stifling, stop, stoppage, strangled, strangling, strangulation, suffocation, suppression, suppressive, thick, throaty, throttling, tremulous, troublesome, twangy, uprooting, velar, violent death, voiding, watery grave