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suffocate

[suhf-uh-keyt]

Example Sentences

verb (used with object)

to kill by preventing the access of air to the blood through the lungs or analogous organs, as gills; strangle.

to impede the respiration of.

to discomfort by a lack of fresh or cool air.

to overcome or extinguish; suppress.

verb (used without object)

to become suffocated; stifle; smother.

to be uncomfortable due to a lack of fresh or cool air.

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Suffocate is one of our favorite verbs.

So is absquatulate. Does it mean:

to flee; abscond:

to introduce subtleties into or argue subtly about.

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Origin:
1520–30; < Latin suffōcātus (past participle of suffōcāre to choke, stifle), equivalent to suf- suf- + -fōc- (combining form of fauc-, stem of faucēs throat) + -ātus -ate¹

Related forms

suf·fo·cat·ing·ly, adverb

suf·fo·ca·tion, noun

suf·fo·ca·tive, adjective

un·suf·fo·cat·ed, adjective

un·suf·fo·ca·tive, adjective

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

Example Sentences

But they do not show any signs of having been caught in long-line fishing nets, which sometimes suffocate the mammoth animals.

Yet the measures to suffocate internet television being taken by the cable companies may already be too late.

With its weaker jaws, the saber-toothed cat couldn't suffocate its prey.

EXPAND

But they do not show any signs of having been caught in long-line fishing nets, which sometimes suffocate the mammoth animals.

Yet the measures to suffocate internet television being taken by the cable companies may already be too late.

With its weaker jaws, the saber-toothed cat couldn't suffocate its prey.

Above the soil, poor air circulation can also suffocate plants, so fans of some kind are required.

The rain fly isn't detachable, but a well-ventilated interior ensures you won't suffocate.

The ride injured his back, and he felt as if his own weight would suffocate him.

Ploughing a field full of locust eggs can suffocate the pests.

Six women suffocate from fumes while applying insulation.

In fact, hibernating frogs would suffocate if they dug into the mud for an extended period of time.

Fish caught in nets by trawlers are dumped on board the ship and allowed to suffocate.

Soaps also suffocate insects and disrupt the waxy cuticle that regulates the way in which their bodies process water.

It goes to suffocate your children and grandchildren in toxic funusable junk.

If the sub lost power, the men could suffocate and the submarine's compartments could turn unbearably cold in the frigid waters.

Without this vital exchange our cells would quickly die and leave the body to suffocate.

Delasmatas-Bujosa suffocate the women at his apartment.

At sea, turtles can get tangled in fishing nets or suffocate on drifting plastic bags, which they mistake for jellyfish.

The victims' lungs fill with fluid, they cannot get enough oxygen into their blood and they suffocate.

The oils suffocate adult mites and insects and destroy their eggs.

Some of the sounds groaned by the contestants would be enough to make a dog suffocate itself.

The blennies, which breathe through their gills and partly through their skin, will suffocate if they completely dry out.

It will suffocate pests that are on the plant, and it is an organic alternative.

Please don't let the governments suffocate the world.

Shellfish will suffocate when tightly wrapped in plastic.

Writers write because they cannot allow the characters that inhabit them to suffocate them.

Eventually, as lung tissues become more and more abnormal, supplemental oxygen no longer works and patients suffocate.

The insect should suffocate and may float out in the oil.

The panic caused some people to suffocate in the crowds streaming for the exits, with the lack of oxygen exacerbated by tear gas.

Orozco allows his readers to breathe even as his characters suffocate.

If you are the only potential rescuer, start searching immediately because the victim can suffocate within about six minutes.

Mistaking discarded plastic bags for jellyfish, turtles suffocate trying to swallow them.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

suffocate (ˈsʌfəˌkeɪt)

—vb
1.	to kill or be killed by the deprivation of oxygen, as by obstruction of the air passage or inhalation of noxious gases
2.	to block the air passages or have the air passages blocked
3.	to feel or cause to feel discomfort from heat and lack of air

[C16: from Latin suffōcāre, from sub- + faucēs throat]

'suffocating

—*adj*

'suffocatingly

—*adv*

suffo'cation

—n

'suffocative

—*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
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American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

suffocate suf·fo·cate (sŭf'ə-kāt')
v. suf·fo·cat·ed, suf·fo·cat·ing, suf·fo·cates

To impair the respiration of; asphyxiate.
To suffer from lack of oxygen; to be unable to breathe.

suf'fo·ca'tion n.
suf'fo·ca'tive adj.

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Related Words

boa constrictor smother

strangle throttle

Matching Quote

"Our children will not survive our habits of thinking, our failures of the spirit, our wreck of the universe into which we bring new life as blithely as we do. Mostly, our children will resemble our own misery and spite and anger, because we give them no choice about it. In the name of motherhood and fatherhood and education and good manners, we threaten and suffocate and bind and ensnare and bribe and trick children into wholesale emulation of our ways."

-June Jordan

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