Throttling
In plain terms
Deliberately limiting the rate of operations.
Going deeper
Throttling slows or caps how often actions occur to protect resources and ensure fairness, similar to rate limiting. It smooths bursty load.
Under the hood
Often client- or gateway-enforced; distinct from rate limiting mainly in framing (smoothing vs. hard caps).
Examples
API request throttling, UI event debouncing, background-job pacing.
Think of it like...
Like a faucet aerator that steadies the flow instead of letting it gush.