throttling

noun

throt·​tling ˈthrä-tᵊl-iŋ 

ˈthrät-liŋ

plural throttlings

1

: the act or an instance of throttling something or someone: such as

a

: the suppression or prevention of an activity

… maintains that the dramatic relaxation of credit restrictions proposed by the Central Bank will inevitably result in hyperinflation, the throttling of economic reforms and the collapse of Western confidence in the Russian economy.

—Michael Dobbs

b

US, informal : a decisive defeat : rout

You missed an impressive, imposing 40-13 victory over Memphis … and a 61-17 throttling of FIU in the season opener.

—The Orlando Sentinel

2

: the activity or process of limiting the bandwidth available to users of an electronic communication systems (such as the Internet)

Slowing down data speeds after a customer reaches its monthly data limit is a common practice among internet service providers and cellular carriers that's known as throttling. Users can still access the cellular network for basic services like email or web browsing, but speeds are often too slow for activities like video streaming.

—Ryan Suppe

Examples of throttling in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Downtime Is Not An Option At these densities, even a brief interruption in liquid flow can lead to thermal throttling or overheating in seconds. —Steven Carlini, Forbes.com, 30 June 2025

Compared to other types of internet connections, fiber is less susceptible to network congestion and internet throttling. —Kara McGinley, USA Today, 21 June 2025

Instead of routing data through third-party servers, the Deeper Connect Mini uses peer-to-peer connections to maintain privacy while minimizing latency and bandwidth throttling. —Stackcommerce Team, PC Magazine, 20 June 2025

Tools like Open Policy Agent (OPA) and HashiCorp Sentinel are increasingly being used to enforce conditional controls—e.g., permitting public access to a service only if logging and throttling are enabled. —Matthew Sweeney, Forbes.com, 17 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1599, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for throttling

• bottling
• mottling