strangle

English

Etymology

From Middle English stranglen, from Old French estrangler, from Latin strangulō, strangulāre, from Ancient Greek στραγγαλόομαι (strangalóomai, “to be strangled”), from στραγγάλη (strangálē, “a halter”); compare στραγγός (strangós, “twisted”) and string. Displaced Middle English worien (“to strangle”) (> English worry).

Pronunciation

  • (without /æ/ raising) IPA(key): /ˈstɹæŋɡəl/, [ˈstɹ̝̊ʷæŋɡəl] ~ [ˈstɹ̝̊ʷæŋɡl̩]
    • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • (/æ/ raising)
    • (US, Canada) IPA(key): /ˈstɹeɪ̯ŋɡəl/, [ˈstɹ̝̊ʷeɪ̯ŋɡəl]; [ˈst̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷeɪ̯ŋɡl̩]; /ˈstɹɛ̃ŋɡ(ə)l/, [ˈstɹ̝̊ʷɛ̃ŋɡəl]; [ˈst̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷɛ̃ŋɡl̩]
  • Rhymes: -æŋɡəl
  • Hyphenation: stran‧gle

Verb

strangle (third-person singular simple present strangles, present participle strangling, simple past and past participle strangled)

A drawing showing a woman being strangled (sense 1).
  1. (transitive) To kill someone by squeezing the throat so as to cut off the oxygen supply.
    Synonym: scrag
    She strangled her husband and dissolved the body in acid.
    • 1936, Robert Frost, “The Vindictives”, in A Further Range:
      And his subjects wrung all they could wring / Out of temple and palace and store. / But when there seemed no more to bring, / His captors convicted the king / Of once having started a war, / And strangled the wretch with a string.
  2. (transitive) To choke, suffocate or throttle, whether the victim survives or not.
  3. (transitive) To stifle or suppress.
    He strangled a scream.
  4. (intransitive) To be killed by strangulation, or become strangled.
    The cat slipped from the branch and strangled on its bell-collar.
  5. (intransitive) To be stifled, choked, or suffocated in any manner.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

strangle (plural strangles)

  1. (finance) A trading strategy using options, constructed through taking equal positions in a put and a call with different strike prices, such that there is a payoff if the underlying asset's value moves beyond the range of the two strike prices.

See also

Further reading

Anagrams

Middle English

Verb

strangle

  1. alternative form of stranglen
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