smother

[ smuhth-er ]

verb (used with object)

1. to stifle or suffocate, as by smoke or other means of preventing free breathing.
2. to extinguish or deaden (fire, coals, etc.) by covering so as to exclude air.
3. to cover closely or thickly; envelop:

   to smother a steak with mushrooms.

4. to suppress or repress:

   to smother feelings.

5. Cooking. to steam (food) slowly in a heavy, tightly closed vessel with a minimum of liquid:

   smothered chicken and onions.

verb (used without object)

1. to become stifled or suffocated; be prevented from breathing.
2. to be stifled; be suppressed or concealed.

noun

1. dense, stifling smoke.
2. a smoking or smoldering state, as of burning matter.
3. dust, fog, spray, etc., in a dense or enveloping cloud.
4. an overspreading profusion of anything:

   a smother of papers.

smother

/ ˈsmʌðə /

verb

1. to suffocate or stifle by cutting off or being cut off from the air
2. tr to surround (with) or envelop (in)

   he smothered her with love

3. tr to extinguish (a fire) by covering so as to cut it off from the air
4. to be or cause to be suppressed or stifled

   smother a giggle

5. tr to cook or serve (food) thickly covered with sauce, etc

noun

1. anything, such as a cloud of smoke, that stifles
2. a profusion or turmoil
3. archaic.
   a state of smouldering or a smouldering fire

Derived Forms

• ˈsmothery, adjective

Other Words From

• smother·a·ble adjective
• half-smothered adjective
• un·smother·a·ble adjective
• un·smothered adjective
• un·smother·ing adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of smother¹

1125–75; (noun) Middle English smorther dense smoke; akin to Old English smorian to suffocate; (v.) Middle English smo ( r ) theren, derivative of the noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of smother¹

Old English smorian to suffocate; related to Middle Low German smōren

Example Sentences

McDonald later accused him, facilitated by Crossley’s supported typing, of attempting to smother her to death with a pillow.

From BBC

But United failed to smother their opponents in the manner of successful teams in the past.

From BBC

“There is always the chance that scientists will find a slow-burning plant that will smother the chaparral,” a county fire official said hopefully.

From Los Angeles Times

“Gigantic, moving plumes that could smother the Pacific’s best tuna fishing grounds, the planet’s largest daily migration of life from the deep to the surface across the ocean’s twilight zone, a region that contains the most abundant vertebrate life on the planet, and is traversed by whales, sea turtles, and giant squid.”

From Los Angeles Times

It is in these moments that many of us promise ourselves that we will smother this difference.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• choke
• douse
• envelop
• overwhelm
• quash
• quell
• snuff
• squelch
• stifle
• strangle
• suffocate
• suppress
• surround