choke up

English

Verb

choke up (third-person singular simple present chokes up, present participle choking up, simple past and past participle choked up)

1. (intransitive) To (temporarily) lose one's power of speech, because of strong emotion.
   • 1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System:

     The point overlooking the sea has beautiful scenery. It's over that away. Such a beautiful place gets me all choked up.

   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. (transitive, sometimes figurative) To block up; to cause something to be blocked.
   • 1904, “Chicago's Awful Theater Horror”, in Memorial Publishing Co., page 42:

     The bodies choked up the entrance, barring the egress of those behind.

4. (baseball, intransitive) To hold the bat higher (farther from the knob) than is normal.