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Gasp vs Choke - What's the difference?

gasp | choke |

In intransitive terms the difference between gasp and choke

is that gasp is to breathe laboriously or convulsively while choke is to perform badly at a crucial stage of a competition because one is nervous, especially when one is winning.

In transitive terms the difference between gasp and choke

is that gasp is to speak in a breathless manner while choke is to prevent someone from breathing by strangling or filling the windpipe.

As an interjection gasp

is The sound of a gasp.

gasp

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A short, sudden intake of breath.
  • The audience gave a gasp of astonishment
  • (British, slang): A draw or drag on a cigarette (or gasper).
  • I'm popping out for a gasp .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To draw in the breath suddenly, as if from a shock.
  • The audience gasped as the magician disappeared.
  • To breathe laboriously or convulsively.
  • We were all gasping when we reached the summit.
  • * Lloyd
  • She gasps and struggles hard for life.
  • To speak in a breathless manner.
  • The old man gasped his last few words.
  • To pant with eagerness; to show vehement desire.
  • I'm gasping for a cup of tea.
  • * Spenser
  • Quenching the gasping furrows' thirst with rain.

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • (humorous)
  • Gasp ! What will happen next?

    References

    Anagrams

    * *

    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