LIMIT clause

[Jose de Leon]

Does the LIMIT clause in a select actually limit the number of rows actually
selected or does it limit only the number of rows returned?

The reason I ask is because I am running a query that is selected over
100,000 rows but no matter how I specify LIMIT, it always chokes the server.

If LIMIT only limits rows returned, then how can I get around that and force
only a small amount of rows selected?

Thanks,
Jose