1. Causing difficulty in breathing especially through lack of fresh air and presence of heat
   "the smothering soft voices"; "smothering heat";
   - suffocating, suffocative, choking

1. Deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing
   "Othello smothered Desdemona with a pillow";
   - asphyxiate, suffocate
    
2. Envelop completely
   "smother the meat in gravy";
   - surround
    
3. Deprive of the oxygen necessary for combustion
   "smother fires";
   - put out
    
4. Suppress in order to conceal or hide
   "smother a yawn";
   - stifle, strangle, muffle, repress
    
5. Form an impenetrable cover over
   "the butter cream smothered the cake"

See also: breathless, dyspneal [N. Amer], dyspneic, dyspnoeal [Brit, Cdn], dyspnoeic, put

Type of: bottle up, cover, extinguish, inhibit, kill, snuff out [informal], spread over, suppress

Encyclopedia: Smothering