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choke up

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choke up

verb chokes up · choking up · choked up

  1. intransitive To (temporarily) lose one's power of speech, because of strong emotion. Hearing that song always makes me choke up.
  2. transitive To cause (a person) temporarily to lose the power of speech, because of strong emotion. It chokes me up to think about how he died.
  3. imperative, intransitive, often To cease talking.
  4. figuratively, sometimes, transitive To block up; to cause something to be blocked. The bodies choked up the entrance, barring the egress of those behind.
  5. intransitive To hold the bat higher (farther from the knob) than is normal.

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MLA

"choke up." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/choke%20up. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

choke up. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/choke%20up

Chicago

"choke up." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/choke%20up.

BibTeX
@misc{choke_up_2026,
  title = {choke up},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/choke%20up},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}