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

But in September, he wrote that this was only a possibility "so long as it is not smothered by bureaucracy" and claimed Doge was "the only path to extending life beyond Earth".

From BBC

Wells hit a grounder that appeared headed for center field, but Edman smothered it with a diving stop on the second-base side of the bag, holding Wells to a single that loaded the bases.

From Los Angeles Times

As she spoke, she pointed to picnic tables smothered in Democratic paraphernalia: blue tablecloths, blue balloons, and rolls of blue stickers that said “I’m voting with Democrats”.

From BBC

The American people are being smothered by public opinion polls.

From Salon

This was when Hill said she hit her victim with a flask and then, when the 90-year-old continued to shout, smothered her.

From BBC

Related Words

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