Her hands clutched at the breast of the cloak, her head dropped into her breast, and a half-smothered moan escaped from her.
A half-smothered cry reached him from somewhere in the direction of the barn.
Lucy was half-smothered with kisses, and was made supremely happy by a present of the finest doll she had ever possessed.
They were half-smothered, lying on their faces as they were.
A few minutes later I was down again, but I emerged again without much exertion, half-smothered with snow.
At once the man started back with a half-smothered exclamation.
If my ears did not deceive me there was a gasp and a low wail, as of a half-smothered child.
A half-smothered sob was her reply, and a tear fell on his hand.
A wild, half-smothered shriek welled up from the sagebrush, showing that another redskin had gone to the land of the hereafter.
There are a lot of wharves, sheds, and vessels lying there half-smothered in mist.
c.1200, "to suffocate with smoke," from smother (n.), earlier smorthre "dense, suffocating smoke" (late 12c.), from stem of Old English smorian "to suffocate, choke, strangle, stifle," cognate with Middle Dutch smoren, German schmoren; possibly connected to smolder. Meaning "to kill by suffocation in any manner" is from 1540s; sense of "to extinguish a fire" is from 1590s. Sense of "stifle, repress" is first recorded 1570s; meaning "to cover thickly (with some substance)" is from 1590s. Related: Smothered; smothering.
