Smother
['smʌðə] or ['smʌðɚ]
Definition
(noun.) a stifling cloud of smoke.
(verb.) conceal or hide; 'smother a yawn'; 'muffle one's anger'; 'strangle a yawn'.
(verb.) envelop completely; 'smother the meat in gravy'.
(verb.) deprive of the oxygen necessary for combustion; 'smother fires'.
(verb.) deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing; 'Othello smothered Desdemona with a pillow'; 'The child suffocated herself with a plastic bag that the parents had left on the floor'.
(verb.) form an impenetrable cover over; 'the butter cream smothered the cake'.
Editor: Pierre--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To destroy the life of by suffocation; to deprive of the air necessary for life; to cover up closely so as to prevent breathing; to suffocate; as, to smother a child.
(v. t.) To affect as by suffocation; to stife; to deprive of air by a thick covering, as of ashes, of smoke, or the like; as, to smother a fire.
(v. t.) Hence, to repress the action of; to cover from public view; to suppress; to conceal; as, to smother one's displeasure.
(v. i.) To be suffocated or stifled.
(v. i.) To burn slowly, without sufficient air; to smolder.
(v. t.) Stifling smoke; thick dust.
(v. t.) A state of suppression.
Checker: Sandra
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Stifle, suffocate, choke.[2]. Suppress, repress, conceal, keep back, keep down.
Typed by Floyd
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Suffocate, stifle, repress, gag, conceal, suppress, choke, strangle, allay,swallow
ANT:Fan, ventilate, foster, cherish, nurture, publish, promulgate, divulge, spread,excite, vent
Typist: Portia
Definition
v.t. to suffocate by excluding the air: to conceal.—v.i. to be suffocated or suppressed: to smoulder.—n. smoke: thick floating dust: state of being smothered: confusion.—ns. Smotherā′tion suffocation: a sailor's dish of meat buried in potatoes; Smoth′eriness.—adv. Smoth′eringly.—adj. Smoth′ery tending to smother: stifling.
Edited by Claudette
Examples
- Either it is blighted in the bud, or has got the smother-fly, or it isn't nourished. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Give it up, you wretched little creetur, or I'll smother you in it. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- Not that he feared fighting; ridicule alone was the bugbear, which made him smother his rising anger till he had quite subdued it. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- I know I must conceal my sentiments: I must smother hope; I must remember that he cannot care much for me. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Where women love each other, men learn to smother their mutual dislike. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- He did not hold enough to smother the cravings of his superhuman appetite. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- We throw a blanket over burning material to smother the fire: to keep oxygen away from it. Bertha M. Clark. General Science.
- Young boys have been smothered in chimneys before now,' said another gentleman. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- Tom stretched himself out on a box, and there, as he lay, he heard, ever and anon, a smothered sob or cry from the prostrate creature,--O! Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- On another occasion he encountered a more novel peril by falling into the pile of wheat in a grain elevator and being almost smothered. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Tom was weeping, also, and occasionally uttering a smothered ejaculation. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- It is under my arm, said Miss Pross, in smothered tones, you shall not draw it. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- He spoke this in a smothered voice, and I did in truth believe that my last moments had arrived. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- Truly I ought not to have been born; they should have smothered me at the first cry. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- I see her now looking up into my face, and entreating me to prevent them from smothering her, and to be sure and give her a strong narcotic. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Ah, brave, manly heart,--smothering thine own sorrow, to comfort thy beloved ones! Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Edited by Alta