This kanji is the same as the radical — straight as straight can be.

It can also mean direct, because when you go straight to a place, you're going there directly. Depending on the context it can even mean fix, since fixing something means straightening out all the messed up crooked bits.

Put food straight into your esophagus without chewing and you will choke (ちょく). You want to get straight to the most important part of eating — the digesting part — but if you don't follow all the intermediate steps, you'll end up choking.