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

Examples 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
  • In 2022, Kayla, a Maryland resident, was brutally raped, strangled with a phone cord and murdered in Harford County by MS-13 gang member and four-time murderer Walter Javier Martinez.
    Dan Cox, Baltimore Sun, 15 Jan. 2025
  • So if someone is strangled to death in the basement of a florist shop in Staten Island, that is a windfall in terms of keeping reader attention.
    Marco della Cava, USA TODAY, 14 Jan. 2025
Verb
  • An artists’ livelihood lost to flames That same pungent, chemical smell had choked the air just a few miles away as the fire kept racing before dawn on January 8 through west Altadena, sending embers zipping through the air like bullets.
    Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN, 17 Jan. 2025
  • Brooks, a 43-year-old Black man, was punched, kicked, choked and manhandled in the Dec. 9 beating at Marcy Correctional Facility north of Utica.
    Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 16 Jan. 2025
Verb
  • Despite throttling the press and trying to suffocate the opposition, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party lost its absolute majority in parliament in part because of widespread economic disaffection among voters.
    Isabella M. Weber, Foreign Affairs, 15 Jan. 2025
  • Israel has faced intense criticism for throttling the distribution of humanitarian aid and failing to ensure safe routes for delivery.
    Laura Kelly, The Hill, 15 Jan. 2025

Thesaurus Entries Near garrote

Cite this Entry

“Garrote.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/garrote. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.

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