Other forms: strangled, strangling, strangles
To strangle is to kill by squeezing the throat. Strangled with a cord, strangle the life out of it, strangled at birth.
Strangulation is the medical and legal term, and in English law non-fatal strangulation became a separate offence in 2022. Figuratively, to strangle something is to stop it developing: strangle the recovery, strangled at birth. A strangled voice is one constricted by emotion, and a strangled cry is one cut off. Note stranglehold, meaning total controlling grip, which is used mainly of markets and politics.
1verbstrangleTo kill by squeezing the throat.
“The victim had been strangled and the case took nine years.”
2verbstopTo stop something developing.
“High taxes are strangling small businesses before they can grow.”
strangle is a squeezing to death.
Greek strangalan means to choke, from a root meaning to twist tight — the same root as strangle's relative strangulate and, at a distance, string. The word is about tightening rather than about the throat.
Ancient Greek
στραγγαλόομαι — to be strangled
Latin
strangulō
Old French
estrangler
Middle English
stranglen
English, today
strangle
Built from
From Middle English stranglen, from Old French estrangler, from Latin strangulō, from Ancient Greek στραγγαλόομαι (“to be strangled”), from στραγγάλη (“a halter”); compare στραγγός (“twisted”) and string. Displaced Middle English worien (“to strangle”) (> English worry).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire