choke up


verb(tr, adverb)
  1. to block (a drain, pipe, etc) completely

  2. informal (usually passive) to overcome (a person) with emotion, esp without due cause

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use choke up in a sentence

  • They choke up after a while, and fresh ones appear in another part of the area, thus keeping the whole clear of plants.

    At Last | Charles Kingsley
  • When a rock is cleft, the fragments half choke up the waters that gush through them.

    The Gold Brick | Ann S. Stephens

Other Idioms and Phrases with choke up

choke up

Block a channel or other passage, as in Vegetation choked up the creek like a dam. [Late 1600s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.