[f. L. strangulāt- ppl. stem of strangulāre: see STRANGLE v.]
† 1. trans. To choke, stifle, suffocate. Obs.
1665. M. N[edham], Med. Medicinæ, 327. This … strangulates all thoughts of devising more potent Medicins, or of introducing other Methods.
2. Path. and Surg. To constrict or compress (an organ, duct, etc.) so as to prevent circulation or the passage of fluid; to remove (a growth) by constricting it with a ligature.
1771–. [implied in STRANGULATED ppl. a.].
1875. Buckland, Log-Book, 222. When the horn [of the deer] has attained its full development the ‘burr’ appears at the base of the horn, and strangulates the blood-vessels.
1876. Gross, Dis. Bladder, 151. On removing the obturator the growth is fairly exposed, and can be strangulated, cut, scraped, or torn away.
1876. Bristowe, Th. & Pract. Med. (1878), 33. If, after injecting them, the operation of twisting, and thus strangulating, one testicle was performed … violent inflammation with sloughing … took place.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 794. A loop of bowel is snared and acutely strangulated. Ibid., IV. 355. The new fibroid tissue gradually contracts,… and narrows and strangulates the tubes which it involves.
b. transf. To choke (a plant); to prevent the flow of sap in (a tree). Also fig.
1835. Southey, Doctor, interch. vii. (1848), 165. The creepers of literature, who suck their food, like the ivy, from what they strangulate and kill.
1841. Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), II. 129. In order to arrest this same elaborated sap in the branches, every plan of reversing, or ringing, or strangulating them, is advised to prevent it sinking to the roots.
3. To prevent respiration in (a person) by constriction of the trachea = STRANGLE v. rare.
1829. Landor, Imag. Conv., Penn & Ld. Peterborough, Wks. 1853, I. 548/1. If we cry out, there is always a hand in readiness to stop our mouths, and to stifle and strangulate such as would resist.
Hence Strangulating ppl. a.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), V. 81. We often meet with a troublesome phimosis, either of the strangulating or incarcerating kind.
1828. Blackw. Mag., XXIII. 412. Struggling in the many-fingered grasp of the strangulating heather.
1871. Napheys, Prev. & Cure Dis., III. xii. 1056. The cough becomes more difficult and strangulating.
