garrote

variants or garotte
as in to strangle
to keep (someone) from breathing by exerting pressure on the windpipe the goons sent by the loan shark threatened to garrote the hero with his own necktie

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of garrote That means the Senate's only practical effect is adding another point at which oligarch lobbyists can garrote popular policy. Ryan Cooper, The Week, 29 Oct. 2021 Tony, unhindered by any sense of moral anguish, garrotes the man in broad daylight with a length of cable. Adam Wilson, Harper's magazine, 16 Sep. 2019 Sometimes the line between good writing and bad writing can be as thin as the piano wire with which a madman garrotes his victims. Laura Miller, Slate Magazine, 15 Aug. 2017 Last year, he was garroted by saw briars—the vicious inch-long thorns that lace the course—which left bleeding gashes across his neck. George Pendle, Esquire, 26 July 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for garrote
Verb
  • China, in turn, imposed new strangling restrictions on the export of seven rare earth minerals.
    Mira Rapp-Hooper, Foreign Affairs, 29 Oct. 2025
  • The victim that day was 55-year-old Anna Elza Slesers, who was found strangled to death in her Boston apartment.
    Jane LaCroix, PEOPLE, 27 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • During the previous school year, the boy strangled and choked a teacher and pulled up a female classmate’s dress and touched her inappropriately on the school playground, the lawsuit claims.
    Cindy Von Quednow, CNN Money, 30 Oct. 2025
  • The figure of Achilles, a warrior who singlehandedly choked a river with dead enemies before taking on the river god himself, provided a model for Alexander the Great and persists in contemporary popular entertainment, political speech, and military culture in celebrations of shock and awe.
    Elizabeth D. Samet, Foreign Affairs, 29 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • The newsroom union claims the change is throttling staff diversity and muting the magazine’s progressive political bent.
    Katie Kilkenny, HollywoodReporter, 3 Nov. 2025
  • Before upgrading, consider testing your current speed, optimizing your Wi-Fi setup and checking if your provider is throttling your connection.
    Roxanne Downer, USA Today, 3 Nov. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Garrote.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/garrote. Accessed 5 Nov. 2025.

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