choke vs throttle

choke

verb
  • To have a feeling of strangulation in one's throat as a result of passion or strong emotion. 

  • To prevent (someone) from breathing or talking by strangling or filling the windpipe. 

  • To be checked or stopped, as if by choking 

  • To perform badly at a crucial stage of a competition, especially when one appears to be clearly winning. 

  • To hold the club or bat lower on the shaft in order to shorten one's swing. 

  • To use the choke valve of (a vehicle) to adjust the air/fuel mixture in the engine. 

  • To be unable to breathe because of obstruction of the windpipe (for instance food or other objects that go down the wrong way, or fumes or particles in the air that cause the throat to constrict). 

  • To move one's fingers very close to the tip of a pencil, brush or other art tool. 

  • To reach a condition of maximum flowrate, due to the flow at the narrowest point of the duct becoming sonic (Ma = 1). 

  • To make or install a choke, as in a cartridge, or in the bore of the barrel of a shotgun. 

  • To check or stop (an utterance or voice) as if by choking. 

  • To obstruct (a passage, etc.) by filling it up or clogging it. 

  • To hinder or check, as growth, expansion, progress, etc.; to kill (a plant by robbing it of nutrients); to extinguish (fire by robbing it of oxygen). 

  • To give (someone) a feeling of strangulation as a result of passion or strong emotion. 

  • To say (something) with one’s throat constricted (due to emotion, for example). 

noun
  • A constriction at the muzzle end of a shotgun barrel which affects the spread of the shot. 

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

  • The mass of immature florets in the centre of the bud of an artichoke. 

  • A choking coil. 

  • In wrestling, karate (etc.), a type of hold that can result in strangulation. 

  • A partial or complete blockage (of boulders, mud, etc.) in a cave passage. 

  • A major mistake at a crucial stage of a competition because one is nervous, especially when one is winning. 

throttle

verb
  • To strangle or choke someone. 

  • To utter with breaks and interruption, in the manner of a person half suffocated. 

  • To have the throat obstructed so as to be in danger of suffocation; to choke; to suffocate. 

  • To control or adjust the speed of (an engine). 

  • To breathe hard, as when nearly suffocated. 

  • To cut back on the speed of (an engine, person, organization, network connection, etc.). 

noun
  • A valve that regulates the supply of fuel-air mixture to an internal combustion engine and thus controls its speed; a similar valve that controls the air supply to an engine. 

  • The lever or pedal that controls this valve. 

How often have the words choke and throttle occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )