DCHP-1 Online
choking 
1 n. Hist. the practice of temporarily choking off with a rope the breath of a horse floundering in water so that it will not take water into the lungs and drown.
See also: choke-rope
- a1820 (1838) In this dilemma the driver . . . slipped a noose of rope round the drowning animal's neck, upon which we pulled till he seemed to be nearly strangled: and this operation is called in the country, very properly, "choking." Whether it was that he floated by means of the air thus forcibly retained in his lungs, as the driver asserted, or whether our united efforts caused him to rise, I cannot say; but so he did; and we had not continued to tug long, before out he slipped on his side, and after a few kicks and struggles, stood frightened and shivering once more on his feet.
2 n. Lumbering the process of handling logs by means of a choker.
See also: choker
- 1948 Choking and Skidding is wholly mechanized by means of Arches or Sulky's pulled by Caterpillars, mostly on level ground.
- a1820 (1838) In this dilemma the driver . . . slipped a noose of rope round the drowning animal's neck, upon which we pulled till he seemed to be nearly strangled: and this operation is called in the country, very properly, "choking." Whether it was that he floated by means of the air thus forcibly retained in his lungs, as the driver asserted, or whether our united efforts caused him to rise, I cannot say; but so he did; and we had not continued to tug long, before out he slipped on his side, and after a few kicks and struggles, stood frightened and shivering once more on his feet.