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Adjective: smothering  smú-dhu-ring
  1. Causing difficulty in breathing especially through lack of fresh air and presence of heat
    "the smothering soft voices"; "smothering heat";
    - suffocating, suffocative, choking
Verb: smother  smú-dhu(r)
  1. Envelop completely
    "smother the meat in gravy";
    - surround
     
  2. Deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing
    "Othello smothered Desdemona with a pillow";
    - asphyxiate, suffocate
     
  3. Suppress in order to conceal or hide
    "smother a yawn";
    - stifle, strangle, muffle, repress
     
  4. Form an impenetrable cover over
    "the butter cream smothered the cake"
     
  5. Deprive of the oxygen necessary for combustion
    "smother fires";
    - put out

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

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

Encyclopedia: Smothering

Smother