smother
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.
Cooking. to steam (food) slowly in a heavy, tightly closed vessel with a minimum of liquid: smothered chicken and onions.
to become stifled or suffocated; be prevented from breathing.
to be stifled; be suppressed or concealed.
dense, stifling smoke.
a smoking or smoldering state, as of burning matter.
dust, fog, spray, etc., in a dense or enveloping cloud.
an overspreading profusion of anything: a smother of papers.
Origin of smother
1Other words from smother
- smoth·er·a·ble, adjective
- half-smothered, adjective
- un·smoth·er·a·ble, adjective
- un·smoth·ered, adjective
- un·smoth·er·ing, adjective
Words Nearby smother
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use smother in a sentence
You just have to find that yin of decency and locate the gestures and words that smother the yang of fear.
Impatiently I smother the accusing whisper of my conscience, "By the right of revolutionary ethics."
Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist | Alexander BerkmanI would not make oath it was so, but my blood was then boiling, and I was trying to smother my passion.
My Ten Years' Imprisonment | Silvio PellicoHamilton saw that without speedy relief his comrade must soon smother.
I choked a little over a big scare that seemed to rush up out of the bed-clothes to smother me.
The Wreckers | Francis Lynde
It endeavoured to smother sleepers like the Scandinavian hag Mara, and similarly deprived them of power to move.
Myths of Babylonia and Assyria | Donald A. Mackenzie
British Dictionary definitions for smother
/ (ˈsmʌðə) /
to suffocate or stifle by cutting off or being cut off from the air
(tr) to surround (with) or envelop (in): he smothered her with love
(tr) to extinguish (a fire) by covering so as to cut it off from the air
to be or cause to be suppressed or stifled: smother a giggle
(tr) to cook or serve (food) thickly covered with sauce, etc
anything, such as a cloud of smoke, that stifles
a profusion or turmoil
archaic a state of smouldering or a smouldering fire
Origin of smother
1Derived forms of smother
- smothery, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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