choker
(ˈtʃəʊkə(r))
[f. choke v. + -er.]
1. a. ‘One that chokes or suffocates another. b. One that puts another to silence. c. Any thing that cannot be answered’ (Johnson).
| 1552 Huloet, Choker, or who that choketh, Suffocator. a 1620 J. Dyke Sel. Serm. (1640) 87 Worldlinesse is a choaker and a quencher of the Spirit. a 1779 Garrick Lilliput i. ii (Jod.), That's a choker! 1848 Thackeray Dr. Birch ad fin, A glass of water was on the table. I took it and drank it to the health of Anny Raby and her husband. It was rather a choker. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 352 She not being in the habit of pledging is a choker for them. 1859 F. Mahoney Rel. Father Prout 194 I'll give that neck of yours a choker! 1873 Slang Dict., Choker or Wind-stopper, a garotter. 1883 Leland Snooping vii. 83, I do not think there is any of this in this last story, and that it is either a choker or a chestnut. |
2. a. slang. A large neckerchief which was worn high round the throat. white choker: the white neckerchief worn in evening dress, by waiters, etc., and esp. by clergymen; often used allusively and sometimes put for the wearer.
| 1848 Thackeray Bk. Snobs i, A sham frill, and a white choker. Ibid. xiv, The mother of the Rev. F. Hughes, proud of her son in his white choker. 1849 Dickens Dav. Copp. v, In..grey coat, speckled choaker, etc. 1859 Sat. Rev. VII. 122/2 [Clergymen] once more encase themselves in the stiff respectability of a white choker, etc. 1864 Reader 23 Jan. 95 The platform array of stuttering nobodies in white chokers. |
b. A necklace or decorative band worn close up against the throat.
| 1928 Daily Chron. 9 Aug. 13/1 A string of chokers is quite inexpensive, and can be worn with practically anything. 1953 A. Baron Human Kind 131 A white pearl choker showing off..her slender neck. |
3. slang. = choky 2: the lock-up, prison.
| 1884 St. Jas. Gaz. 4 Jan. 12/2 He preferred to go to ‘choker’. |
4. Electr. = choking coil.
| 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXIII. 233/1 Choking or impedance coils..called ‘chokers’. |
5. A noose of wire rope or the like tied round a log for hauling it. orig. U.S.
| 1905 Terms Forestry & Logging (U.S.) 33 Choker, a noose of wire rope by which a log is dragged. 1945 B. MacDonald Egg & I (1946) iii. 42 He told me to put the chokers on the fir trees and to shout directions for the pulling. 1957 Brit Commonw. Forest Terminol. II. 44 Choker, a length of flexible wire rope or chain with a connexion (shackle) for attaching it to the butt hook on one end and a hook..on the other. Note. A choker is used to form the noose around the log and hold it during dragging. |
Hence chokered ppl. a., attired in a choker.
| 1865 Look before you Leap I. 46 A white-chokered young Exquisite. 1866 Lond. Rev. 7 Apr. 388/1 A whitebait waiter is admirably chokered. |