Library / English Dictionary

STRANGLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Struggle for breath; have insufficient oxygen intake

Example:

he swallowed a fishbone and gagged

Synonyms:

choke; gag; strangle; suffocate

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "strangle" is one way to...):

hurt; suffer (feel pain or be in pain)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s on something
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

Constrict (someone's) throat and keep from breathing

Synonyms:

choke; strangle

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "strangle" is one way to...):

compact; compress; constrict; contract; press; squeeze (squeeze or press together)

Cause:

choke (breathe with great difficulty, as when experiencing a strong emotion)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

strangulation (the condition of having respiration stopped by compression of the air passage)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Prevent the progress or free movement of

Example:

the imperialist nation wanted to strangle the free trade between the two small countries

Synonyms:

cramp; halter; hamper; strangle

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "strangle" is one way to...):

bound; confine; limit; restrict; throttle; trammel (place limits on (extent or amount or access))

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Die from strangulation

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "strangle" is one way to...):

asphyxiate; stifle; suffocate (be asphyxiated; die from lack of oxygen)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

strangulation (the condition of having respiration stopped by compression of the air passage)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Suppress in order to conceal or hide

Example:

repress a cry of fear

Synonyms:

muffle; repress; smother; stifle; strangle

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "strangle" is one way to...):

bottle up; inhibit; suppress (consciously restrain from showing; of emotions, desires, impulses, or behavior)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 6

Meaning:

Kill by squeezing the throat of so as to cut off the air

Example:

A man in Boston has been strangling several dozen prostitutes

Synonyms:

strangle; strangulate; throttle

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "strangle" is one way to...):

kill (cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly)

"Strangle" entails doing...:

compact; compress; constrict; contract; press; squeeze (squeeze or press together)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "strangle"):

garotte; garrote; garrotte; scrag (strangle with an iron collar)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to strangle the prisoners

Derivation:

strangler (someone who kills by strangling)

strangler (an epiphytic vine or tree whose aerial roots extend down the trunk of a supporting tree and coalesce around it eventually strangling the tree)

strangling; strangulation (the act of suffocating (someone) by constricting the windpipe)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I have murdered the lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as they slept and grasped to death his throat who never injured me or any other living thing.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Small waves, with spiteful foaming crests, continually broke over me and into my mouth, sending me off into more strangling paroxysms.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

His appearance,—I forget what description you gave of his appearance;—a sort of raw curate, half strangled with his white neckcloth, and stilted up on his thick-soled high-lows, eh?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

They attached the line with which they had been snubbing the boat to Buck’s neck and shoulders, being careful that it should neither strangle him nor impede his swimming, and launched him into the stream.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

And as I choked and strangled, and as the Ghost wallowed for an instant, broadside on and rolling straight over and far into the wind, I beheld a huge sea rise far above my head.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I climbed the thin wall with frantic perilous haste, eager to catch one glimpse of you from the top: the stones rolled from under my feet, the ivy branches I grasped gave way, the child clung round my neck in terror, and almost strangled me; at last I gained the summit.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was so thick in the confined space that I was compelled to feel my way; and so potent was the spell of Wolf Larsen on my imagination, I was quite prepared for the helpless giant to grip my neck in a strangle hold.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

"But don't pull me down or strangle me," he replied: for the Misses Eshton were clinging about him now; and the two dowagers, in vast white wrappers, were bearing down on him like ships in full sail.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And the Catlips and the Bembergs and G. Earl Muldoon, brother to that Muldoon who afterward strangled his wife.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)