in comb. [the stem of the vb.]
1. in attributive relation to a sb. = ‘choking, that chokes’: as choke-ball, -muddle; choke-strap, a strap that connects the collar with the belly-band, and keeps the former in place when a horse is backing. Also CHOKE-DAMP.
b. esp. with fruit- and plant-names, as choke-apple, the Crab-apple; choke-berry, the astringent fruit of Pyrus arbutifolia; † choke-plum, a plum having qualities similar to the Choke-pear; used fig.; † choke-wort = CHOKE-WEED. Also CHOKE-CHERRY, -PEAR.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 379. A kind of wild Apple, called a *Choake apple, because they are verie harsh in eating.
1646. Evance, Noble Ord., 26. Lust and luxury, the only baine and *choak-ball to Honour.
1851. Mayne Reid, Scalp Hunt., xl. 305. Skin-bags filled with … *choke-berries.
1882. Garden, 14 Jan., 26/1. The *‘choke-muddle’ shrubberies that one sees in all parts of the country.
1556. J. Heywood, Spider & F., xxxvi. 1. The spiders tale … semth a choking *choke plum Against flies.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Praise of Hempseed, Wks. III. 66 a/2. The name of *Choak-wort is to it assigned, Because it stops the venom of the mind.
2. with sb. in objective relation = ‘what chokes (the thing in question)’: as † choke-bail, an action, raising so great an issue as to prevent the possibility of bail being offered; choke-dog, dial. (see quot. 1886); † choke-fitch, an old name for Dodder, Orobanche; † choke-pard Leopard’s Bane (Doronicum); choke-priest, a rendering of Ital. strozzapreti, a soup thickened with short pieces of a kind of pasta or macaroni.
1632. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, V. iii. Arrest him on an action of *choke-bail.
1676. Wycherley, Pl. Dealer, V. iii. (1678), 78–9. 1 Bay[liff]. We arrest you, in the King’s Name….
Wid[ow Blackacre. How, How! in a Choak-Bayl Action!
1826. Scott, Diary, 14 June. Bought a little bit of Gruyere cheese, instead of our dame’s *choke-dog concern.
1886. W. Barnes, Dorset Gloss., Chock-dog, an epithet bestowed … on hard Dorset cheese.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 71 b. Orobanche that is *chokefitche or strangletare.
a. 1693. Urquhart, Rabelais, III. li. 408. More … hurtful than the Strangle-weed, Choak-fitch is to the Flax.
1605. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. iii. (1641), 27/1. The touch of *Choak-Pard Aconite [cf. Lyte Dodoens III. lxxviii. 426 Aconitum Pardalianches … Aconit that baneth Panthers].
1848. J. Grant, Adv. Aide-de-C., xxxiv. A famous maker of polenta and *choke-priest.
