asphyxiate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
asphyxiatesimple
-
asphyxiatessimple
-
have asphyxiatedperfect
-
has asphyxiatedperfect
-
am asphyxiatingprogressive
-
are asphyxiatingprogressive
-
is asphyxiatingprogressive
-
have been asphyxiatingperfect progressive
-
has been asphyxiatingperfect progressive
Past
-
asphyxiatedsimple
-
had asphyxiatedperfect
-
was asphyxiatingprogressive
-
were asphyxiatingprogressive
-
had been asphyxiatingperfect progressive
Future
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."
Vocabulary lists containing asphyxiate
National Spelling Bee '14: Prelims Round 3
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This Week in Words: November 24 - 30, 2018
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Selected Short Stories of Flannery O'Connor
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
