asphyxiate

American  

[as-fik-see-eyt] / æsˈfɪk siˌeɪt /

verb (used with object)

• asphyxiates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• asphyxiated,
  past participle,  past
• asphyxiating
  present participle

1. to produce asphyxia in.

2. to cause to die or lose consciousness by impairing normal breathing, as by gas or other noxious agents; choke; suffocate; smother.

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verb (used without object)

• asphyxiates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• asphyxiated,
  past participle,  past
• asphyxiating
  present participle

1. to become asphyxiated.

asphyxiate British  

/ æsˈfɪksɪˌeɪt /

verb

1. to cause asphyxia in or undergo asphyxia; smother; suffocate

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• asphyxiation
  noun
• asphyxiator
  noun

Inflected Forms

Participles

• asphyxiating
  present
• asphyxiated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• asphyxiate
  simple
• asphyxiates
  simple
• have asphyxiated
  perfect
• has asphyxiated
  perfect
• am asphyxiating
  progressive
• are asphyxiating
  progressive
• is asphyxiating
  progressive
• have been asphyxiating
  perfect progressive
• has been asphyxiating
  perfect progressive

Past

• asphyxiated
  simple
• had asphyxiated
  perfect
• was asphyxiating
  progressive
• were asphyxiating
  progressive
• had been asphyxiating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will asphyxiate
  simple
• will have asphyxiated
  perfect
• will be asphyxiating
  progressive
• will have been asphyxiating
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of asphyxiate

First recorded in 1830–40; asphyxi(a) + -ate ¹

Explanation

To asphyxiate is to keep someone from breathing — to suffocate or smother them. Choking on a piece of food can asphyxiate a person. Your body needs to breathe oxygen in order to function, and when it's deprived of oxygen that's called asphyxia or asphyxiation. If a person stops being able to breathe, you can also say they asphyxiate. The origin of this verb is asphyxia, "stopping of the pulse," in Greek, which originally had the same meaning in English, before it came to mean "suffocation."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

asphyxiate asphyxiates asphyxiated asphyxiating

This stops the stress hormone and lactic acid buildup that can hurt flavor and texture when fish are left to asphyxiate.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2025

The allegations were released Thursday by Haiti’s antigovernment corruption unit, whose general director, Hans Joseph, pledged to go after those who “torpedo the public treasury and asphyxiate the country’s economic and social development efforts.”

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 26, 2022

Two physicians in the expert network, Dr. Karch and Dr. Theodore Chan, agreed with the coroner’s finding that Mr. Silva did not asphyxiate; Dr. Chan cited studies he had done on the subject.

From New York Times ● Dec. 26, 2021

At the same time, Lake Kivu, the body of water on whose shores Goma sits, could potentially asphyxiate millions in the event of an earthquake, thanks to gases building up beneath its surface.

From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2019

Poor engine hates it—coughing and spluttering the whole way—suppose I’m lucky I didn’t asphyxiate in the exhaust.

From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein

Told that methylene chloride asphyxiates people at high enough levels, he said he didn’t want to talk about it.

From Slate ● Sep. 21, 2015

Their action takes place against cityscapes so steeped in shadowy, gas-lit mystique the reader practically asphyxiates.

From Slate ● Nov. 30, 2012

Stanley Greenfield, however, cynically argues that the revolt against the car may not take place until a thermal inversion, combined with a traffic jam out of Godard's Weekend, asphyxiates thousands on a freeway to nowhere.

From Time Magazine Archive

Be frank with Polk as to how much he asphyxiates me?

From The Tinder-Box by Maria Thompson Daviess

Ninety-nine out of every hundred people who visit picture galleries need to be delivered from that "museum atmosphere" which envelops works of art and asphyxiates beholders.

From Art by Clive Bell

Norwegian salmon producer Mowi was hit in 2016 after warm water in Chilean fjords caused algal blooms that asphyxiated millions of fish.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

When Lake Nyos erupted in 1986, it asphyxiated nearly 2,000 people and wiped out four villages in Cameroon.

From National Geographic ● Jan. 18, 2024

For decades, many experts thought they asphyxiated amid the massive clouds of ash belched from the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

From Science Magazine ● Aug. 22, 2023

Last year, after 51 migrants died asphyxiated in a truck outside of El Paso, I argued in this website that that increased forced displacement in a context of restrictive migration regimes will cost innumerable lives.

From Slate ● Mar. 29, 2023

Might we not be asphyxiated before the Nautilus could surface?

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

Gas stoves emit a variety of pollutants, including asphyxiating carbon monoxide, cancer-causing formaldehyde and benzene.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2024

A horror movie set almost entirely within the walls of a couple’s apartment, “Domestique,” directed by the Czech filmmaker Adam Sedlak, observes the asphyxiating intersection of two extreme body regulation routines.

From New York Times ● Mar. 10, 2023

Daily updates from energy traders drop into their email inboxes, showing the asphyxiating upward climb of prices for the natural gas and electricity that power their energy-devouring business.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 8, 2022

As factories grew up across the city, the air outside became just as asphyxiating.

From Salon ● Jun. 4, 2022

If just one of them moved, I thought, the domino effect could engulf the three of us in an asphyxiating mass of literature.

From "Looking for Alaska" by John Green

Related Words

• suffocate