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

From union leaders to foreign students There are some striking parallels between the throttling of civil liberties during the Cold War and President Donald Trump’s crusade against foreign students exercising venerated democratic freedoms. —Rick Baldoz, The Conversation, 30 Apr. 2025

Maine is the first state to face full throttling of its the K-12 funds from the Trump administration. —Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times, 23 Apr. 2025

Liquid cooling technology, implemented in Ironwood, delivers substantially higher thermal efficiency compared to conventional air cooling, enabling chips to operate at higher frequencies without thermal throttling. —Maribel Lopez, Forbes.com, 15 Apr. 2025

Thanks to the use of GaN technology, the charger runs cool for hours with minimal thermal throttling, even during extended and full-load use, providing a consistently fast charge. —Mark Sparrow, Forbes, 11 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1599, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for throttling

• bottling
• mottling