Stran·gle v. t. [imp. & p. p. Strangled p. pr. & vb. n. Strangling ]
 1. To compress the windpipe of (a person or animal) until death results from stoppage of respiration; to choke to death by compressing the throat, as with the hand or a rope.
    Our Saxon ancestors compelled the adulteress to strangle herself.   --Ayliffe.
 2. To stifle, choke, or suffocate in any manner.
 Shall I not then be stifled in the vault, . . .
 And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?   --Shak.
 3. To hinder from appearance; to stifle; to suppress. “Strangle such thoughts.”


 strangled
      adj : held in check with difficulty; "a smothered cough"; "a
            stifled yawn"; "a strangled scream"; "suppressed
            laughter" [syn: smothered, stifled, suppressed]