Forms: 6 throtal, throttil, 7 dial. thrattle, 8 throtle, 6– throttle. [Has the form of a dim. of throte, THROAT: cf. Ger. drossel, dim. of OHG. droʓʓa throat. But the late appearance of the word (c. 1550), its app. synonymy with the earlier THROPPLE (c. 1375), and the earlier existence of THROTTLE v., combine to make its actual history perplexing.
Sense 3, of 17th c., is evidently a noun of action from the vb., and might be treated as a distinct word.]
1. The throat. Now chiefly dial.
a. 1547. Surrey, Æneid, IV. 361. Amid his throtal his voice likewise gan stick [L. vox faucibus hæsit, Douglas, the voce stak in his hals].
1570. Levins, Manip., 126/18. A Throttil, guttus, uris, hoc. A Throppil, idem, iugulum.
c. 1720. Gibson, Farrier’s Guide, I. iii. (1738), 28. This pipe is called the Trachea … which Name it Obtains from the Throtle to the Lungs.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life, XX. 238. The neck of each bottle She thrusts down her throttle.
1823. J. F. Cooper, Pioneers, xxxiv. Under the grasp which the steward held on his throttle.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust (1875), I. vi. 109. Now, here’s a bottle, Wherefrom, sometimes, I wet my throttle.
b. The larynx. Now rare.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 763. Because the actions of the Throttle or Larynx are perfourmed with voluntary motion, Nature hath giuen it muscles.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. xxvii. 174. The windepipe … in this birde [bittern] … hath no Larinx or throttle to qualifie the sound.
1905. Daily Chron., 16 March, 3/4. He used to carry home to me … from his anatomy class … the throttles of all kinds of animals!—chickens, sheep and cows. You would imagine that these cartilaginous larynxes, red from the operating table, would have disgusted me.
c. transf. The throat or neck of a bottle.
a. 1845. Hood, Public Dinner, ii. Certain bottles Made long in the throttles.
2. (See quot.)
a. 1864. Gesner, Coal, Petrol., etc. (1865), 79. The throttles … are small flues which distribute the heat around the still.
† 3. The act of throttling or fact of being throttled; choking, suffocation. Obs. rare–1.
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., I. 24. They cramme their crawes like so many Capons in a Coope, till they can swallow no more, and so die of the throttle.
4. Short for throttle-valve (see 5); also a similar valve in a motor engine.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., Throttle. (Steam.) A name for the Throttle-value.
1903. Times, 30 April, 3/2. He had slowed down … the motor-cycle … and had almost closed the throttle. Ibid. (1907), 30 May, 4/6. An experienced driver controlled the throttle and could pull up at once. Ibid. (1908), 6 April, 7/1. He was on watch in the engine-room and standing near the throttles.
5. attrib. and Comb., as (in sense 1) throttle-bone, -pipe, (in sense 4) as throttle control; throttle damper, an adjustable damper for a flue, etc., working like a throttle-valve; throttle-lever, a lever for opening or closing a throttle or throttle-valve; throttle-valve (probably from the vb.), a valve for regulating the supply of steam, esp. to the cylinder of a steam-engine.
1681. Grew, Musæum, I. II. i. 11. The *Throttle Bone of a Male Aquiqui.
1910. Westm. Gaz., 10 Feb., 5/1. The *throttle control is well worth careful attention.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Supp., s.v. A *throttle damper, with arrow and quadrant, for regulating the passage of the flue and registering the same. [1864 Webster, *Throttle-lever.]
1882. Scudder, Noah Webster, vi. 184. He seems … to have his hand close to the throttle-lever without knowing it.
1632. Brome, Northern Lass, III. iii. I’le cut your *thrattle-pipe.
1824. R. Stuart, Hist. Steam Engine, 129. A cock or valve, called the *throttle-valve or regulator, placed on the pipe conveying the steam from the boiler.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2564. Throttle-valve … in the Watt engine … a disk turning on an axis, and occupying in its transverse position the bore of the main steam-pipe … frequently an ordinary conical valve with a stem operated by a screw.
1899. F. T. Bullen, Log Sea-waif, 252. The grey-headed chief-engineer stood by the grunting machinery, his hand on the throttle-valve.
