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smother

[smuhth-er]

Example Sentences Origin

verb (used with object)

to stifle or suffocate, as by smoke or other means of preventing free breathing.

to extinguish or deaden (fire, coals, etc.) by covering so as to exclude air.

to cover closely or thickly; envelop: to smother a steak with mushrooms.

to suppress or repress: to smother feelings.

Cookery. to steam (food) slowly in a heavy, tightly closed vessel with a minimum of liquid: smothered chicken and onions.

verb (used without object)

to become stifled or suffocated; be prevented from breathing.

to be stifled; be suppressed or concealed.

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Smother is always a great word to know.

So is raised. Does it mean:

prepared in simple French style, as in a cream sauce containing mushrooms

made light by the use of yeast or other ferment but not with baking powder or soda

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noun

dense, stifling smoke.

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

Related forms

smoth·er·a·ble, adjective

half-smoth·ered, adjective

un·smoth·er·a·ble, adjective

un·smoth·ered, adjective

un·smoth·er·ing, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To smother

Example Sentences

First came the tubs of berry-colored lip gloss that could smother a fly.

Yes, but be sure to smother him with kindness when you do so.

But some people are worried that oil-bloated success could smother other parts of the economy.

EXPAND

First came the tubs of berry-colored lip gloss that could smother a fly.

Yes, but be sure to smother him with kindness when you do so.

But some people are worried that oil-bloated success could smother other parts of the economy.

The blobs may smother marine life and carry diseases dangerous to humans.

Because what they actually do is, swarm the hornet and smother it to death.

Macroalgae can smother reefs, fill otherwise habitable nooks and cover food sources.

He would stay in a position to smother all my punches.

It can smother reed beds, reefs and other important ecosystems.

With only a limited amount of the foam and water, he wasn't sure the concoction would smother the fire in time.

It's one thing to not be able to teach math and science, but to actively smother interest is common.

Scientists are testing ways to use ordinary clay to smother the algae, which are single-celled creatures.

The point is to eat the vegetables, not to smother them in something that triples the calories, and adds no food value.

Silt deposits can smother redwoods-for the giants are amazingly vulnerable.

Or maybe, he said, he would smother me with my pillow.

Then, place a slice of seared foie gras on top and smother in the foie gras sauce.

Painted wood floors, cups of crayons on the tables, a sound system turned to a volume that doesn't smother conversation:.

Take care not to smother evergreen perennials and small shrubs.

Instinctively, she rolled over to smother the flames.

China is not winning its battle with official corruption, and the state's huge role in the economy may smother innovation.

They clubbed the back of our necks and pushed us down to smother us and let us die in a deep hole with hundreds of other bodies.

The printed accounts of parents trying to smother their infant children in the hospital were horrifying enough.

When a mature company tries to put its bureaucractic stamp on a small entreprenuerial one, it can smother it inadvertently.

On the whole, however, intelligibility was high except at rare moments when the orchestra was allowed to smother the voices.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

smother (ˈsmʌðə)

—vb
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

—n
6.	anything, such as a cloud of smoke, that stifles
7.	a profusion or turmoil
8.	archaic a state of smouldering or a smouldering fire

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

'smothery

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

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

EXPAND

"stifle, repress" is first recorded 1579; meaning "to cover thickly (with some substance)" is from 1598.

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Related Words

asphyxiate overlie smolder

stifle still suffocate

Matching Quote

"Where women love each other, men learn to smother their mutual dislike."

-George Eliot

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