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smother

 - 3 dictionary results

smoth⋅er

  [smuhth-er]
Use smother in a Sentence
–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. Cookery. to steam (food) slowly in a heavy, tightly closed vessel with a minimum of liquid: smothered chicken and onions.
–verb (used without object)
6. to become stifled or suffocated; be prevented from breathing.
7. to be stifled; be suppressed or concealed.
–noun
8. dense, stifling smoke.
9. a smoking or smoldering state, as of burning matter.
10. dust, fog, spray, etc., in a dense or enveloping cloud.
11. an overspreading profusion of anything: a smother of papers.
Origin:
1125–75; (n.) ME smorther dense smoke; akin to OE smorian to suffocate; (v.) ME smo(r)theren, deriv. of the n.

Related forms:
smoth⋅er⋅a⋅ble, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To smother
smoth·er   (smŭth'ər)   
v.   smoth·ered, smoth·er·ing, smoth·ers

v.   tr.

    1. To suffocate (another).

    2. To deprive (a fire) of the oxygen necessary for combustion.

  2. To conceal, suppress, or hide: Management smothered the true facts of the case. We smothered our indignation and pressed onward.

  3. To cover thickly: smother chicken in sauce.

  4. To lavish a surfeit of a given emotion on (someone): The grandparents smothered the child with affection.

v.   intr.

    1. To suffocate.

    2. To be extinguished.

  2. To be concealed or suppressed.

  3. To be surfeited with an emotion.

n.  Something, such as a dense cloud of smoke or dust, that smothers or tends to smother.

[Middle English smotheren, from smorther, dense smoke; see smolder.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

smother 
c.1200, "to suffocate with smoke," from smorthre (n.) "dense, suffocating smoke" (c.1175), from stem of O.E. smorian "to suffocate, choke," possibly connected to smolder. Meaning "to kill by suffocation" is from 1548; sense of "to extinguish a fire" is from 1591. Sense of "stifle, repress" is first recorded 1579; meaning "to cover thickly (with some substance)" is from 1598.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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