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Breathe vs Choke - What's the difference?

breathe | choke |

As verbs the difference between breathe and choke

is that breathe is to draw air into (inhale), and expel air from (exhale), the lungs in order to extract oxygen and excrete waste gases while choke is to be unable to breathe because of obstruction of the windpipe, for instance food or other objects that go down the wrong way.

As a noun choke is

a control on a carburetor to adjust the air/fuel mixture when the engine is cold.

breathe

English

Verb

  • To draw air into (inhale), and expel air from (exhale), the lungs in order to extract oxygen and excrete waste gases.
  • To take in needed gases and expel waste gases in a similar way.
  • :Fish have gills so they can breathe underwater.
  • To use (a gas) to sustain life.
  • :While life as we know it depends on oxygen, scientists have speculated that alien life forms might breathe chlorine or methane.
  • Figuratively, to live.
  • :I will not allow it, as long as I still breathe .
  • *(rfdate) Shakespeare
  • *:I am in health, I breathe .
  • *(rfdate) Sir Walter Scott
  • *:Breathes there a man with soul so dead?
  • To draw something into the lungs.
  • :Try not to breathe too much smoke.
  • To expel air from the lungs, exhale.
  • :If you breathe on a mirror, it will fog up.
  • To pass like breath; noiselessly or gently; to emanate; to blow gently.
  • :The wind breathes through the trees.
  • *(rfdate) Shakespeare
  • *:The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.
  • *(rfdate) Byron
  • *:There breathes a living fragrance from the shore.
  • To give an impression of, to exude.
  • :The decor positively breathes classical elegance.
  • To whisper quietly.
  • :He breathed the words into her ear, but she understood them all.
  • To exchange gases with the environment.
  • :Garments made of certain new materials breathe well and keep the skin relatively dry during exercise.
  • To rest; to stop and catch one's breath.
  • *:
  • *:Thenne they lasshed to gyder many sad strokes / & tracyd and trauercyd now bakward / now sydelyng hurtlyng to gyders lyke two bores / & that same tyme they felle both grouelyng to the erthe / Thus they fought styll withoute ony reposynge two houres and neuer brethed
  • *(rfdate) Shakespeare
  • *:Well! breathe awhile, and then to it again!
  • To stop, to give (a horse) an opportunity to catch its breath.
  • :At higher altitudes you need to breathe your horse more often.
  • Synonyms

    * (to draw air in and out) see

    Derived terms

    * *

    choke

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l) (obsolete) * (l) (obsolete) * (l) (dialectal)

    Verb

    (chok)
  • To be unable to breathe because of obstruction of the windpipe, for instance food or other objects that go down the wrong way.
  • To prevent someone from breathing by strangling or filling the windpipe.
  • * Shakespeare
  • With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder.
  • To obstruct by filling up or clogging any passage; to block up.
  • to choke a cave passage with boulders and mud
    (Addison)
  • To hinder or check, as growth, expansion, progress, etc.; to stifle.
  • * Dryden
  • Oats and darnel choke the rising corn.
  • (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 perform badly at a crucial stage of a competition because one is nervous, especially when one is winning.
  • To move one's fingers very close to the tip of a pencil, brush or other art tool.
  • To be checked, as if by choking; to stick.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • The words choked in his throat.
  • To affect with a sense of strangulation by passion or strong feeling.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • I was choked at this word.
  • To make a choke, as in a cartridge, or in the bore of the barrel of a shotgun.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • A control on a carburetor to adjust the air/fuel mixture when the engine is cold.
  • (sports) In wrestling, karate (etc.), a type of hold that can result in strangulation.
  • A constriction at the muzzle end of a shotgun barrel which affects the spread of the shot.
  • A partial or complete blockage (of boulders, mud, etc.) in a cave passage.
  • The mass of immature florets in the centre of the bud of an artichoke.
  • Derived terms

    * choker * choke collar * unchoke

    See also

    * strangle English ergative verbs