choke up

phrasal verb

choked up; choking up; chokes up

: to have trouble talking because of crying or strong emotion

He chokes up whenever he tries to talk about the accident.

baseball : to move one's hands to a higher position on a baseball bat

—often + on

He choked up on the bat and took a short swing.

Examples of choke up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Escola ended their curtain call speech with a couple more jokes, but stopped short of choking up on stage. —

Jordan Moreau, Variety, 12 July 2024 Suni Lee choked up in her first interview after making the team. —

Rachel G Bowers, USA TODAY, 1 July 2024 This includes many of the actors, who, at the Cannes press conference on Friday, admitted to often having no idea what this movie is about, though many of them got choked up while talking about that. —

Rachel Handler, Vulture, 17 May 2024 Emotions ran high as some students and teachers got choked up speaking to council members about the impact the cuts will have on them. —

Stephen Underwood, Hartford Courant, 8 May 2024 See all Example Sentences for choke up

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'choke up.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.