Wiktionary

strangle

English edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English stranglen, from Old French estrangler, from Latin strangulō, strangulāre, from Ancient Greek στραγγαλόομαι (strangalóomai, “to strangle”), from στραγγάλη (strangálē, “a halter”); compare στραγγός (strangós, “twisted”) and string. Displaced Middle English wirien, awurien (“to strangle”) (> English worry).

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

strangle (third-person singular simple present strangles, present participle strangling, simple past and past participle strangled)

 
A drawing showing a woman being strangled.
  1. (transitive) To kill someone by squeezing the throat so as to cut off the oxygen supply; to choke, suffocate or throttle.
    She strangled her husband and dissolved the body in acid.
    • 1936, Robert Frost, “The Vindictives”, in A Further Range:
      And his subjects wrung all they could wring / Out of temple and palace and store. / But when there seemed no more to bring, / His captors convicted the king / Of once having started a war, / And strangled the wretch with a string.
  2. (transitive) To stifle or suppress.
    He strangled a scream.
  3. (intransitive) To be killed by strangulation, or become strangled.
    The cat slipped from the branch and strangled on its bell-collar.
  4. (intransitive) To be stifled, choked, or suffocated in any manner.

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit

Translations edit

Noun edit

strangle (plural strangles)

  1. (finance) A trading strategy using options, constructed through taking equal positions in a put and a call with different strike prices, such that there is a payoff if the underlying asset's value moves beyond the range of the two strike prices.

See also edit

Further reading edit

Anagrams edit

Middle English edit

Verb edit

strangle

  1. Alternative form of stranglen
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=strangle&oldid=77566159"