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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

querk.

To throttle; choke; stifle; suffocate.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/kwɜːk/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To throttle; choke; stifle; suffocate.

    transitive
  2. To grunt, croak, squeal; to moan, complain; to sigh, huff; to emit a breath forcibly, as after great exertion.

    intransitive
  3. To die.

    dialectal · intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English querken (also as querkenen), from Old Norse kvirkja (“to strangle”), from Proto-Germanic *kwirkijaną, from Proto-Germanic *kwerkō (“gullet, throat”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷergʷ-, *gʷerkʷ-, *gʷerw- (“throat, neck”). Cognate with Old Frisian querka ("to strangle"; > North Frisian querke, quirke (“to querk”)), Danish kværke (“to throttle, strangle, suffocate”), Icelandic kyrkja, kvirkja (“to throttle, strangle”), Middle Low German querken (“to strangle”), Middle Low German querke, quarke (“throat, gullet”), Old High German querka, querkela (“throat, gullet”), Latin gurguliō (“throat”). More at gurgle.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.